SEM Chapter 3

Human Resource Planning

-Forecasts an organization’s future demand for and
supply of employees, and matches supply with
demand

-Strategic & proactive

-often referred to as strategic HRP

Primary Objective of HRP

•  ensure the organization has the right people with the right skills at the right time to fulfill organizational objectives.

• Attempts to achieve economies of scale by securing right resources

Not enough to have right people at the right time

•     ◦ It is equally crucial to have appropriate human resource practices in place to create the right environment and enable and motivate people to do the right things.

Long-term vs short-term

•     ◦ A firm’s long-range strategic plan is achieved through the thoughtful execution of a series of short-range tactical (or operational) plans that concentrate on current needs and operations (such as purchasing new system, recalling a defective product, etc)

•     ◦ To adapt to modern technology and approaches and achieve long-term HR goals, organizations utilizing traditional classroom-based learning and performance management systems might need to pivot their short-term human resource needs.

Variability in HR Planning Sophistication

planning practices to become more robust as organizations grow due to the significant financial impact of labor costs

4 Types of HR Planning

1. No formal planning: usually in small companies where things are done in a reactionary way. Resource plan is static. Little focus on motivation & talent development (called “firefighters”)

2. Basic planning: engage in a mix of proactive & reactionary steps

3. Advanced Planning: Tie between strategy & HR planning anticipating needs 3-5 years in advance

4. Sophisticated planning: Senior HR pros; planning 5+ years out and rely on strong tech & experts. Integral robust HRIS. rely on third-party technologies and expertise, such as cloud-based digital infrastructure, predictive analytics, and large-scale data, to supplement internal processes and create predictive modeling.

Highest level of commitment (Exceptional Planning)

• Some organizations hire Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs).

•     ◦ This appointment asserts the need to unify strategy, research, data, planning, and employee engagement/well-being to achieve high-performance organizations.

•     ◦ This integrated type of planning is considered exceptional.

Role of Data & Analytics

• The Chartered Institute for Personnel Development defines HR analytics as using people-centric data in analytical procedures to solve business problems.

•     ◦ The HR field is still maturing in making evidence-informed decisions.

•     ◦ A primary challenge cited by some authors is the lack of the appropriate type of data in most companies today, preventing the widespread use of data.

•     ◦ A new challenge for HR professionals arising from sophisticated planning is determining how to utilize data analytics without generating concern from employees.

Workforce 5-step planning process

1. Forecast demand for resources
   * quantity of HR resources being needed

2. Assess supply of resources
   *assesses internal & external factors

3. Develop HR goals
   *Find gap between S&D 

4. Design & implement workforce systems to balance S&D

5. Establish & conduct evaluation
   quantitative or qualitative measurement.
   Addresses question: link between HR investment & org success?

Effective HR Planning is crucial b/c

• it reduces the risk of being out of balance, although it may not completely eliminate the risk.

• best starting point for planning is to forecast the need for resources. HR forecasts aim to predict an organization’s future demand for employees.

Assessing what drives demand

Strategic plan, demographics, turnover, legal changes, tech, competition, budgets, job redesign, new ventures

Strategic Plan

• commits the firm to long-range objectives, such as new products, markets, services, and growth rates.

•     ◦ These objectives directly determine the necessary numbers and types of future employees.

Demographic Impacts

•  HR leaders use this profile (e.g., comparing average employee age against average retirement age) to gain insight into future retirements.

•     ◦ Effective planning must consider the role of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in HR systems.

•     ◦ Planning also needs to address the conscious and unconscious biases of hiring

Turnover

•  Turnover is the departure of employees, whether due to employee decision (resignations) or employer decision (terminations), or temporary departures (leaves of absence).

•     ◦ Turnover can be either functional (good) or dysfunctional (bad).

•     ◦ Effective HRP must be prepared to understand and predict employee departures.

• rate was down during COVID

Legal Changes

• generally easier to predict, but their implications for HR planning are often unclear.

•     ◦ Examples include the impact of the Canadian Human Rights Act, major judicial verdicts, changes in employment laws (like minimum wages), and federal/provincial regulations.

•     ◦ The change from "equal pay for equal work" to "equal pay for work of equal value" will have profound implications for human resource planners.

Tech Changes

•  difficult to predict and can affect both the demand for, and supply of, human resources and appropriate HR practices.

•     ◦ While automation and digitization have eliminated certain jobs, the high-tech and electronics industry is a high-growth sector employing hundreds of thousands of people.

•     ◦ Technology often reduces employment in one department while simultaneously increasing it in another, making planning complex.

• Could affect 50% of the world economy

• The World Economic Forum predicted that automation would displace 75 million jobs but create 133 million new jobs by 2022.

Competitors

• affect HR demand, though not uniformly.

•     ◦ In traditional sectors (like steel), foreign competition and pressure for productivity improvements mean employment barely grows.

•     ◦ In high-tech industries, competition often leads to lower prices, larger markets, and increased employment.

•     ◦ The arrival of a competitor can affect demand if existing employees leave for the competitor or if the organization fails to compete.

Budgets & Revenue Forecasts

•     ◦ Budget increases or cuts are the most significant short-run influence on human resource needs.

•     ◦ Revenue forecasts, though less exact than budgets, can provide quicker notice of short-run changes in demand.

New Ventures

• create new HR demands.

•     ◦ If ventures are initiated internally, planners typically have lead time to develop both short- and long-run plans.

•     ◦ Acquisitions and mergers necessitate an immediate revision of human resource demands.

•     ◦ Reorganization after a merger can radically alter needs, potentially eliminating duplicate positions and requiring the creation of new integrating roles.

• Amazon & Whole Foods Drone example

Organizational & Job Design

•  sometimes eliminating roles and sometimes creating new ones.

•     ◦ For instance, when Nokia shifted its focus from the cellphone market to networking equipment after buying out a partnership with Siemens

Methods of Forecasting are not

Perfect, but viewed as approximations

3 ways to estimate HR demand

1. Expert

2. Trends

3. Other

Expert technique (4 types)

-Rely on experts like managers to make estimates

1. informal & instant: experts give forecast

2. Formal expert survey: groups of managers asked to make forecasts and these ideas are discussed & ranked

3. Delphi technique: surveys of group experts, shared back, then survey again until opinions converge

4. Nominal Group Techniques

Informal Estimates

Least systematic & often inaccurate

Systematic survey

the experts—about their department’s future employment needs, analyzing differing perspectives, and centralizing the data to formulate formal plans for the organization’s future demand. These surveys can be informal polls, written questionnaires, etc

Nominal Group Technique

This face-to-face technique presents managers with a problem statement (e.g., "What will cause our staffing needs to change over the next year?"). Participants individually write down answers, share these ideas in a round-table format until all written and newly stimulated ideas are recorded, and then discuss and vote

Delphi Technique

used when experts CANNOT meet face-to-face. HR planners act as intermediaries, soliciting estimates, summarizing the various responses, and reporting the findings back to the experts. This process of summarizing and surveying is repeated until the experts’ opinions reach agreement

Trend technique (2 types)

-Quickest, short-run approx therefore innaccurate for long-range projections; Stat analysis: sophisticated stats allow for changes in underlying causes of demand

1. Extrapolation: extending past into future; For example, if 20 production workers were hired monthly for the last two years, extrapolation predicts the addition of 240 production workers in the upcoming year. Stat analysis: sophisticated stats allow for changes in underlying causes of demand

2. Indexation: method estimates future needs by matching employment growth with a chosen index, such as the ratio of production employees to sales. For instance, if planners discover that a million-dollar increase in sales requires 10 new assemblers, this ratio can be used to estimate personnel demand. When using indexation, it is important to recognize that the growth or decline rate of the labor force may vary during growth and downsizing periods,

Other techniques

Budget & planning analysis

New venture analysis: planners estimate HR needs by comparing with similar operations

Simulation & predictive models

Budget & Planning Analysis: 

• Analyzing long-range plans for planned growth or contraction, coupled with extrapolations of workforce changes (e.g., resignations, terminations), can provide short-run estimates of needs. These projections can then be validated using short-term operational plans and budgets.

New-Venture Analysis

• planners estimate human resource needs by comparing them with firms already performing similar operations, making necessary adjustments for productivity improvements.

Simulation & Predictive Models

most sophisticated organizations use robust technology for effective forecasting. Data analytic models employ a series of mathematical formulas and algorithms that simultaneously use extrapolation, indexation, survey results, and workforce change estimates to compute future needs.

• only 25% of business leaders were confident that HR professionals fully grasped emergent technologies, indicating a need for HR professionals to advance in this area.

Converting Forecasts to Requirements

-Puts it into short & long range needs, but staffing tables are needed to summarize forecasts

Staffing Tables

• A staffing table is an approximation, often providing a specific number or an approximate range of needs depending on the accuracy of the underlying forecast. These tables allow HR specialists to:

• • Match short-run demand and supply.

• • Write HR objectives.

• • Help operating departments run more smoothly.

• • Enhance the image of the HR department by providing specific future needs estimates.

• • Become more proactive and systematic.

Assessing supply (internal & external)

Internal supply indicators (HR audits): skill inventories, management inventories, charts/summaries, transition matrice/Markov analysis

External supply indicators: labour market, community attitudes, demographics

Use of replacement charts

How to meet employment equity goals

 Use the knowledge gained from assessment tools (audits, charts, Markov, etc)

Growing challenge to internal supply estimates

• the rise of the gig economy (voluntary temporary work), which leads to faster transitions in and out of organizational roles, increasing the complexity of prediction.

HR audits 4 kinds

-summarize employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). These audits generate various inventories that facilitate the preparation of replacement charts and summaries.

Skills inventories: summary of worker skills & abilities

Management inventories: leadership capabilities

Replacement charts: list of likely replacements for each job

Replacement summaries: likely replacements and their strengths & weaknesses

Skills Inventories

• (like a resume) catalogues the capabilities within the organization’s workforce and can be applied to both managerial and nonmanagerial roles.

• Content: data on employee background, skills, defeciencies

• Purpose: help planners understand mix of employees KSAs and meeting org goals

• Maintained regularly (every 2 years) to ensure employees aren’t being overlooked when they gain new skills

• Competency Audits: used  to gain a robust understanding of employee competencies, which helps HR managers mitigate risks associated with the under- or oversupply of human resources as the nature of work changes

Management & Leadership Inventories

These are comprehensive reports on the available management and leadership capabilities within the organization.

Updated periodically

Content: differs by focusing on management activities (# of employees supervised, budget, delegation

Integration of skills inventory & leadership

• not mutually exclusive. The 9-box grid is one example of an individual evaluation tool that integrates an employee’s current contribution (skills inventory) with their potential level of contribution (leadership inventory).

Talent Management

• Some organizations utilize tools, such as the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), to accumulate information on employees' leadership behaviors, enabling them to more accurately identify suitable internal candidates for leadership roles.

Replacement Charts

• a visual representation of who will replace whom in the event of a job opening. The information for constructing the chart comes from the human resource audit.

• -Becoming unnecessary to include age in replacement charts

• -depicts the various jobs in the organization and shows the status of likely candidates. Replacement status consists of two variables: present performance and promotability or potential

• - Present performance is determined largely from supervisory evaluations. Opinions of other managers, peers, and subordinates may contribute to the appraisal of present performance.

• Future promotability is based primarily on present performance and the estimates by immediate superiors of future success in a new job

Replacement Chart issues and solution

• Quick BUT is limited and assumes static org

• Therefore specialists develop replacement summaries: list likely replacements and their relative strengths and weaknesses for each job

Transition Matrices & Markov Analysis

•  relatively simple method for predicting the internal supply of human resources in the future. It is particularly useful in organizations where employees regularly move from one job or rank to another. It is also effective when job fluctuations are not rapid due to external (e.g., technological) or internal (e.g., strategic) changes.

Markov Cont’d

• method reflects patterns in human resource movements using transition matrices. A transition matrix describes the probabilities of an incumbent either staying in their current job for the forecast time period (typically one year), moving to another internal job position, or leaving the organization (e.g., through resignations).

• • Calculation: When the transition matrix (the probabilities) is multiplied by the number of employees currently in each job position at the beginning of the year, a forecaster can estimate the approximate number of employees who will remain in each job position at the end of the year.

Pros & Cons of Markov Analysis

• useful for speculative analysis (i.e., "what if" scenarios) to understand the potential impact of changes in transition probabilities, such as assessing the effect if the quit rate for a specific job doubles. This makes it a valuable tool in the context of strategic planning.

• • Limitations: While popular because it is easy to use, Markov analysis is only as reliable as the transition probabilities employed. Consequently, it is appropriate only for medium-sized and large organizations because the probabilities are not reliable if there are only a few incumbents in each job

External Supply estimate 3 factors

-Labour market

-Community attitudes

-DemographicsL ESDC, Stats Canada, Canadian Occupational Projection System

Labour Market Trends

-Labour vs skills market important to distinguish (skill set is more narrow)

-Unemployment rate: only present metric and doesn’t show future supply

-Rate of mobility: depends on sector

-Agricultural shortages: Labour shortages in Canada’s agriculture industry have doubled over the last decade and are projected to double again before 2025, forcing companies to rely on temporary foreign workers.

-Recessionary impact: minorities & newcomers are more affected

-TFW: Despite ongoing controversy and cut back, Canada saw an increase in temporary foreign workers gaining permanent residency, and during the COVID-19 health crisis, the government focused on granting citizenship to those already in the country.

Community Attitudes

• • Community attitudes, such as anti-business or nongrowth sentiment, can influence the labour market and potentially cause employers to relocate.

• • Examples include activist investing, such as the 2013 attempt by a group to break apart Agrium (later merged into Nutrien), which would likely have dramatically affected the employee pool.

• • Social justice movements also affect hiring intentions; for instance, in 2020, RBC announced it would increase its target for executives identifying as Indigenous, Black, or people of colour from 20 percent to 30 percent.

Demographic trends

• • Demographic trends are long-term developments that affect external supply and are known years in advance.

• Baby boomers retiring & tech boom

• Less people desiring to be truck drivers 

Source of Info for Planners

• • Statistics Canada: Publishes reports on labour force conditions monthly, quarterly, annual, and occasionally, providing information on total labour force projections, including geographic, demographic, and occupational variables.

• • Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC): Provides important resources.

•     ◦ The Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS), designed by ESDC, offers highly detailed projections of the Canadian economy up to 10 years into the future.

    ◦ Job Bank (a group of ESDC products) identifies trends, job outlooks by occupation and field of study, and estimates the prospect of finding jobs in specific locations.

• • Conference Board of Canada: Generates relevant research reports on various HR-related topics

Constant balance between

shortage & oversupply

Strategies to manage an oversupply of HR (3 things)

Headcount reduction

Attrition

Alternative work arrangement

Headcount reduction (4 methods)

Layoffs

leave without pay,

Incentives for voluntary separation

termination

Layoffs

• used for short-run surplus, maybe due to the economy; can last weeks for inventory adjustment or years due to business cycle

• Employees are placed on “recall list” but temproary often turns into permanent

• Furlough = temorary layoff

•     ◦ In unionized settings, layoff procedures are dictated by collective agreements, while nonunion employers must consider factors to avoid constructive dismissal claims.

Leave without Pay

•  LWOP programs often allow employees to take a short "sabbatical" for personal reasons (e.g., education, family issues).

•     ◦ In cases of significant budgetary cuts, the employer may initiate the leave without pay.

•     ◦ One survey noted that 25 percent of Canadians are actively planning for an unpaid leave of absence.

Incentives for Voluntary Separation

• often referred to as a buyout or a voluntary severance package (VSP).

•     ◦ VSPs can include a cash incentive, pension support, and outplacement services.

•     ◦ A key aspect is that these programs need to be voluntary.

Termination

• permanent separation for any reason.

•     ◦ While it can imply being fired as a form of discipline, it also refers to discharge for business or economic reasons when there are no plans to rehire the employee.

•     ◦ A key consideration is the requirement to provide terminated employees with sufficient notice, pay in lieu of notice (severance pay), or a combination.

•     ◦ While provincial employment standards vary, terminated employees commonly receive the equivalent of one week per year of service.

Outplacement Prodedures (can be part of VSP)

•  Formal outplacement procedures (often provided by external consultancy firms) help present employees find new jobs with other firms. Services include resumé writing, job search, and interview preparation. These efforts soften the blow for the former employee and demonstrate management's commitment to the welfare of remaining employees. A 2001 study showed $1.5 billion was spent on outplacement services in the United States, although only about 30 percent of firms focused on these services.

Attrition

• Attrition is the normal separation of employees resulting from resignation, retirement, or death, initiated by the individual worker, not the company.

• Advantages: Attrition is a slow method for employment reduction, but it presents the fewest problems.

Hiring freeze, early & phased retirement offers

Hiring Freeze

• Most employers initially respond to a surplus with a hiring freeze, preventing the HR department from filling openings with external applicants and requiring the reassignment of present employees. For example, Suncor announced a hiring freeze and cut 1,000 jobs in 2015 following a drop in heavy oil commodity prices.

Retirement Offers

• • Early and Phased Retirement Offers: These are special forms of attrition that HR can actively control to reduce staffing levels and create internal job openings.

•     ◦ Early Retirement: Designed to encourage long-service workers to retire before the normal retirement age (e.g., 65 years). Benefits may be reduced proportionately since employees draw them longer.

•     ◦ Phased Retirement: Allows older employees to gradually reduce their work activity and phase into retirement, often through gradually shortened workweeks, without loss or reduction of pension benefits.

•     ◦ Surveys indicate most companies require an employee to have a minimum of five years of service and be at least 55 years old to participate in phased retirement.

•     ◦ Over half of the companies surveyed allowed participating employees to later change their minds.

Alternative Work arrangement

If the head count of employees is not to change, other options are to adjust the work term by job sharing, using part-time employees, transfering employees where resources are needed, or loaning employees to other organization

Job Sharing

• Definition: Job sharing (or job splitting) involves dividing the duties of a single position between two or more employees, reducing the number of total work hours.

• • Benefits:

•     ◦ From the employer's perspective, job sharing eliminates the need to lay off one employee completely.

•     ◦ Employees benefit by maintaining employment while having more free time.

•     ◦ A major claimed advantage is increased productivity because the workers are not fatigued.

• • Challenges:

•     ◦ Problems arise from the increased paperwork and administrative burden associated with having two employees perform the job of one.

•     ◦ HR specialists must determine whether job sharers should receive benefits

• Ex) using AI to take on repetitive tasks

Work Sharing

Also used to avoid layoffs. A major example is the federal work-sharing program administered by ESDC, which permits employees to voluntarily reduce their hours to spread the available work among the workforce.

Using part-time employees

• reduces the total work hours and labor costs.

• • Incentive: The significant decrease in total benefit costs (especially health care and pensions) provides a great incentive for employers to utilize regular part-time work, as these employees are often paid no benefits.

• • Flexibility: Part-time work increases flexibility, allowing employers to match the workforce with periods of peak demand.

• • Context: Part-time employment is popular due to the higher demand in service industries (which employ over 40 percent of all part-timers) and the general need for cost-cutting.

Part-time work caveats

• • Public Sector Exception: Employers that do provide benefits to part-time workers tend to be in the public sector (e.g., municipal governments and health care facilities).

• • Risks and Legal Issues:

•     ◦ Part-time employment carries public costs, as these employees have limited entitlement to government-run employment insurance and disability benefits.

•     ◦ Lacking disability benefits, they face potentially serious financial problems if they cannot work and may end up on welfare rolls.

•     ◦ Converting full-time work to part-time work may also be fraught with legal challenges in certain settings.

Undersupply (2 definitions)

• • A labour shortage occurs when there is insufficient qualified talent available to meet the organization's demand for labor, resulting in open positions that cannot be filled.

• • A skills shortage occurs when the demand for workers possessing specific specialized skills exceeds the available supply.

• • It is possible for an organization to simultaneously experience a labour surplus and a skills shortage (i.e., too many employees who lack the appropriate skill set).

Strategies to Manage shortage (4 things)

Hire employees

source service providers

Develop employees internally

Extend existing work arrangement

Hire employees

Hire full-time employees

• More fixed costs (avoided if possible)

• Only viable option for key positions like CEO

• • In Canada, full-time work is defined as more than 30 hours per week.

• Probationary period = 90 days in Alberta

Hire part-time workers

• popular strategy b/c flexible

• Often used in the service industry

• Firms may restructure to fit these positions 

• Cheper b/c they don’t include expensive benefits (varies by law)

Source out service providers

independent contractor: freelancer

Consultants

Outcourse

Crowdsource: takes function once done by employees and outsources to an undefined network of people (open call)

Co-source: a form of contracting that brings an external team to support internal team

Contracter or Consultants

•  (or contingent worker) is a freelancer who provides goods or services under a specific contract, is not part of the regular workforce, and is governed by contract law rather than employment legislation.

• • Contractors are not employees; they typically invoice the organization for services delivered, and their contract concludes upon completion of the services.

• • Contractors generally determine their own work hours, may have their own offices, can work multiple contracts, and provide their own equipment and supplies. They are not eligible for benefits.

Determining Contractor vs Employee

• Control: Is the person under the direction and control of another with respect to the time the person works, where the person works, and the way in which the work is done? The greater the control, the more likely that the person is a contractor. The contractor determines the result. For an employee, the employer has the right to determine the way the task is carried out.

• Ownership of Tools: Does the person use the tools, space, supplies, and/or equipment owned by someone else? If so, this may be an indicator. Contractors supply their own tools.

• Profit: Does the person make a profit? A person who profits could be a contractor. If the person’s income is the difference between the cost of providing the service and the price charged, then the person is deemed an independent contractor.

• Risk of Loss: An employee has no risk of loss. If the person risks losing money if the cost of doing the job is more than the price charged, then they can be considered to have contractor status.

• Subcontracting: Does the individual need to complete the work personally? If the individual does not need to complete the work personally and can hire someone else to do it, they are considered to be a contractor.

CRA uses strict tests to determine this

Consultants

• • Organizations may engage a consultant, who is a professional offering expert advice and counsel in a specific area.

Outsourcing & Offshoring

• • Outsourcing is a formal agreement with a third party to perform a service instead of using internal resources.

• • Outsourcing is generally associated with work that is noncore to the organization, where the third-party firm possesses special skills, technology, and expertise.

• • This business decision allows the organization to save money, improve quality, or free up internal resources to focus on core activities.

• • Offshoring is a subset of outsourcing that involves transferring jobs to another country by hiring local subcontractors.

• • Outsourcing can cause organizational disruption (e.g., the backlash toward CIBC when it outsourced operations to India).

• • HR management plays a significant role in managing the vendor,

Crowdsourcing

• • Crowdsourcing is a novel model where a function previously performed by employees is outsourced via an open call to an undefined and generally large network of people (the "crowd").

• • The organization communicates its need via the Internet, and interested parties respond on their own time and based on their own interests.

• • The work is performed outside the traditional company walls, and contributors are paid if their input is deemed valuable.

• • Unlike traditional outsourcing, which involves formal Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and vendor review, crowdsourcing utilizes social networks or the Internet to communicate the problem.

• • Advantages include exploring innovative ideas at a relatively low cost and helping to reduce costs.

• • For example, McDonald’s crowdsourced new burger ideas in 2014

Co-sourcing

• a recent trend, particularly in technology and audit services. It involves bringing an external team to support and work with an organization’s internal team to achieve organizational goals. Co-sourcing is viewed more as a collaboration than a traditional contracting out of business goals.

Developing employees internally

Promotions, replacement charts, succession & career plans, training & development

Work arrangement

• • A work arrangement refers to a firm’s utilization of work hours, schedules, and location to ensure that both organizational goals and employee needs are optimally met.

Extend Existing working arrangements (3 options)

*• These arrangements require reciprocal choices: the organization chooses to offer them, and employees choose whether to accept.

Overtime

Flexible retirement: extend their time working

Float & transfer: move employee from one job to another that is pretty equal in pay & duties

Overtime

•  it is a popular staffing strategy.

• • It is often used even when there isn't a shortage, as firms seek to avoid the additional fixed expenses of hiring permanent employees.

• • In nonunionized settings and many organizations, supervisory and managerial staff are often expected to work unpaid overtime as part of the organizational culture.

• • Consequences: Recurring overtime can negatively impact employee morale, and lead to increased fatigue, stress levels, accident rates, and wastage.

• Progressive Alternatives: Some employers have reduced work hours to improve productivity and competitiveness.

US) 30 hour work for 40 hour pay

Flexible Retirement

•  targeting employees close to retirement to extend their contributions and optimize their talent.

• • These "retiree-return" programs provide retirees the opportunity to work after they have officially retired, with significant flexibility in terms of where, when, what, and how they work.

• • The programs are tailored to account for retirees’ needs and often begin prior to retirement.

• • Organizational Benefits: Firms retain intellectual capital, can fill unexpected gaps with experienced talent, preserve institutional knowledge, facilitate knowledge transfer, and control labor costs since retirees generally do not receive additional benefits.

• Employers should accommodate for age-related issues

Float & Transfer (Job Rotation)

•  transferring full-time resources when needed, or "floating" the worker for short-term needs.

• • This strategy relies on strong training programs to ensure employees are cross-trained so they can secure resources when and for how long they are needed.

2 ethical dilemmas with flexible work

•  Relocating a Production Unit:

•     ◦ The firm is considering moving Production Unit 1 from its current location in an interior Canadian town to a developing country.

•  Converting Full-Time Employees to Part-Time:

•     ◦ The firm is considering converting a number of full-time employees in the head office and Production Unit 2 to a part-time workforce.

Final step in planning process: Program measurement & evaluation

Evaluate the workforce implementation against the org goals (ex. were vaccines reduced, recruits achieved?)

Common to look at time and cost

• • HR professionals must use key business metrics and develop a thorough understanding of how human resource planning can contribute to the bottom line.

• • Continuous improvement must be evident from year to year based on HR planning. This requires measuring all processes, developing a baseline, and putting initiatives in place.

• • The ability to comprehensively ascertain value from HR processes depends largely on the organization’s level of technological sophistication and the robust nature of the tools chosen.

Human Resource Info System

HRIS is used to collect record, store, analyse, and
retrieve data concerning an organization’s
human resources (typically at enterprise level)
The major stakeholders who use the
information from an HRIS are HR professionals,
managers, and employees

HRIS Function Criteria

Choosing systems depends on org requirments

~Size, info, goals, tech abilities, reporting abilities

HRIS System Types

• • Simple/Nonrelational Systems (Small Firms):

•     ◦ Small firms may start with a simple HRIS used solely for basic HR administration (e.g., employee name, address, pay, employment status, benefits, birth date).

•     ◦ The technology is often low-tech, using generic software like Excel, maintained on one computer or a few networked computers.

    ◦ These systems are typically nonrelational, requiring information (e.g., employee name, job title) to be separately entered into multiple files (Excel)

• • Sophisticated/Relational Systems (Growing/Large Firms):

•     ◦ As organizations grow, they require more sophisticated, often self-contained relational systems that vary considerably in price based on functionality and integration.

•     ◦ In relational systems, information about an employee only needs to be entered once.

    ◦ These systems include referential integrity, a feature that prevents errors, (Sage HRMS)

• • Enterprise-Wide Systems:

•     ◦ The most integrated systems link an organization’s entire software application environment (including sales, operations, distribution, and HR) into a single enterprise solution.

•     ◦ Data integration is seamless, entered just once, and accessible in real time across different system applications.

•     ◦ When information is updated (e.g., a salary increase), it appears instantly in the employee file and the general ledger, (Oracle, SAP)

Importance of HRIS

For strategic HRM

-efficiency & service delivery

-effective & helps stakeholders

-contribution & sustainability to manage talent

-increased visibility: improved HR competencies

*Look at relationship graph

Accessing HRIS & Security

Important to determine who should have access and has right to change input data

Security concerns about unauthorized disclosure of info

• • Access Control: Access to HRIS data must be weighed against the need for confidentiality and employee privacy.

• • Sensitive Information: Sensitive information (such as medical reports, grievance files, disciplinary records, security reports, and benefits records) should be tightly protected and offered only on a "need-to-know" basis.

• • Data Entry Restrictions: Restricting data entry to a few persons improves consistency but can result in delays and lack of flexibility.

• • Security Profiles: Robust HRIS systems are effective at managing security by allowing the organization to set up "security profiles" based on role.

•     ◦ These profiles determine whether the role holder can view or change information and which specific data fields (like banking information or social insurance numbers) are accessible.

Tech Features

• • Web-Based Applications: Sophisticated systems offer web-based and mobile applications, often linking to the employer’s intranet and databases.

•     ◦ Employee Self-Service (ESS): Allows employees to access, view, and make applicable changes to their own records (e.g., updating address or banking information).

•     ◦ Manager Self-Service (MSS): Enables managers to access, view, and add relevant employee information, such as performance appraisal ratings or performance records.

• • Components: The most common components of an HRIS include: recruitment and applicant tracking, time and attendance, training and development, performance management, career planning, compensation, benefits and pension administration, employment equity information, performance evaluation, health and safety, and labour relations.

• • Data Sets: Within each component, there may be multiple points of data (e.g., training data includes type, cost, vendor, and delivery method), leading to more meaningful reports when the data set is robust.

Reporting Capabilities

• • Standard and Special Reports: All HRISs produce regular reports (e.g., employee records, salary/benefit details). Sophisticated systems go beyond standard reports to produce special reports and answer questions interactively, supporting organizational decision-makers.

• • Predictive Analysis: A sophisticated HRIS can generate predictions about the costs and organizational impact of proposed programs (e.g., forecasting how many employees will accept a new dental plan and how it will affect turnover and recruitment success).

• • Financial Support: HRIS enables institutions (like universities) to create timely reports about service, sick time, vacation entitlements, and statutory holiday pay, thereby supporting the finance function when compiling financial statements.

HR Resource Accounting

• • HRA is a financial model that views "human resources" as an asset and an investment, measuring the financial return on those investments.

• • HRA is a method used for identifying, measuring, accounting, and forecasting the value of human resources to facilitate effective organizational management.

• • HRA attempts to quantify human assets using two main approaches:

•     ◦ Cost Model: Based on calculating costs such as acquisition, replacement, or opportunity costs.

•     ◦ Value Model: Strives to evaluate human resources based on their economic value to the organization.

• • HRA serves as a managerial tool, providing objective and reliable information for planning functions like salary administration, training, HR planning, and union–management negotiations.

Tech & Automation 

•  ◦ Increased Efficiency: Automation minimizes administrative transactions and compliance requirements, enabling "just-in-time" service delivery. Employees can gather information through self-service delivery, reducing the need to consult HR leaders in person.

•     ◦ Enhanced Decision-Making (Effectiveness): Fewer administrative tasks allow HR to focus on strategic issues, identifying key metrics that help achieve business goals. Accurate, timely data and applicable security profiles enable closer collaboration between managers and HR professionals.

•     ◦ Increased Visibility: Technology enables HR professionals to interact at a more sophisticated level with clients regarding business informational needs. Clients expect HR to possess knowledge of their financial and strategic challenges.

Role of Data & Predictive Analysis

• • Predictive analysis is utilized by HR to detect trends. This process involves selecting, exploring, analyzing, and modelling data to create better business outcomes, allowing HR to predict how best to address future events or manage HR issues.

• • Organizations (e.g., DBS Bank in Singapore) use data and analytics to boost productivity, reduce turnover, and recruit more effectively.

• • HR technology companies are developing HRISs (Human Resource Information Systems) that use machine learning solutions to increase retention and performance.

Org Sustainability & Talent Management

• • Talent management is critical for organizational sustainability, focusing on optimizing the skills and competencies within the firm.

• • Talent management refers to the "systemic attraction, identification, development, engagement/retention and deployment of those individuals with high potential who are of particular value to the organization".

• • By combining HRIS data (such as career planning, succession planning, and training) with manager-identified business needs, HR leaders can:

•     ◦ Quickly adapt and create replacement charts and succession models.

•     ◦ Generate lists of employees ready for the next role or identify appropriate development pathways.

HR Trends Brought By COVID

• • Employee Well-being: By early 2021, employee well-being and mental health had taken center stage, necessitated by the blurring of work/life boundaries due to remote work. Strategies to foster well-being will become core support mechanisms and recruitment incentives.

• • Redefining Flexibility: Post-pandemic flexibility enables greater employee independence regarding time and space (when and where they work). The home is becoming the new office, changing the distance metric from kilometers to continents.

•     ◦ However, increased flexibility is easier for knowledge workers than for place-based employment, which may further deepen socioeconomic divides.

• • Employee Analytics and Surveillance: Concerns about decreased productivity during remote work led many employers to increase their use of employee surveillance technologies.