HRM

Chapter 1

1. Define HRM

• HRM is the management of people in organizations to drive successful organisational performance and achievement of organizations strategic goals

2.  analyze the strategic significance of HRM

• Human resources professionals are responsible for ensuring that the organization attracts, retains, and engages the diverse talent required to meet operational and performance commitments made to customers and shareholders. Their job is to ensure that the organization finds and hires the best individuals available, develops their talent, creates a productive work environment, and con- tinually builds and monitors these human assets. They have the primary respon- sibility for managing the workforce that drives organizational performance and achieves the organization’s strategic goals.

3. Define Human Capital

• The knowledge, education, training, skills, and expertise for an organizations workforce

4. Define Balanced scorecard

• A measurement system that translated organizations strategy into a comprehensive set of financial and operational performance measures

5. Define employee engagement

• The emotional and intellectual involvement of employees in their work, and the intensity, focus, and involvement they bring to their jobs and organizations. 

6. What does Traditional HR practices involve

• Welfare offices and welfare secretaries to manage activities like factory washrooms, safety bureaus, to oversee plant safety and hiring offices, training programs and factory schools. known as personnel management

• personnel managers took over hiring and firing from supervisors, ran the payroll departments, and administered benefits plans. As expertise in testing emerged, personnel departments played a greater role in employee selection and training. 

• New union laws in the 1930s added “Helping the employer deal with unions” to personnel management’s tasks. New equity- oriented laws in the 1970s and 1980s made employers more reliant on person- nel management to avoid discrimination claims. 

7. What is outsourcing

• Outsourcing is a business practice in which services or job functions are hired out to a third party on a contract or ongoing basis.

8. What is environmental scanning

• Identifying and analyzing external opportunities and threats that may be crucial to the organization’s success.

9. What is organizational culture

• values, beliefs, and norms of organizational members

10. Baby boomers born between xx to xx

• 1946 to 1964

11. Generation X born between xx to xx

• 1965 to 1980

12. What is the canadian council of human resource associations

• CPHR Canada is the National Voice of HR​​ In Canada and around the world, CPHR Canada is leading HR recognition, advancement and influence.

• In the past, the provincial associations governing the professional desig- nation worked relatively cohesively, promoting and recognizing the common CHRP designation under the Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations (CCHRA). However, as a result of recent changes, Ontario has formed its own association and is governed independently from the other juris- dictions. In 2015, the Ontario-based Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) replaced CHRP with a three-tiered designation: (1) Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP), (2) Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL), and (3) Certified Human Resources Executive (CHRE).

• renamed itself Chartered Professionals in Human Resources  

13. What are the objectives of HR associations across canada Pg.9

• positions in HR appeared either to value CHRL and CPHR designations equally, or to suggest that a professional designation in HR was a desired attribute, rather than a requirement, without referring to which designation would be considered.  

Chapter 2

1. Why must a company review legislations across provinces/territories

• Not all provinces have the same legislations, what may apply in Ontario may be subject to change in British Columbia 

2. What is the human rights commission

• The purpose of the Human Rights Commission is to sit in independent judgment of complaints of alleged discrimination.

• to promote and enforce human rights, to engage in relationships that embody the principles of dignity and respect, and to create a culture of human rights compliance and accountability. We act as a driver for social change based on principles of substantive

3. What is the ministry of labour

• The Ministry of Labour works to establish and enforce employment standards, prevent workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths, and handle workplace disputes in Ontario. It works on behalf of employers and employees to ensure harmonious workplaces across the province.

4. What is the employment standard legislation

• The employment standards legislation in each province and territory within Canada sets out the minimum legal requirements that an employer must follow within areas such as minimum wage, statutory holidays, vacation and leaves, notice of termination and severance pay and many more.

5. What is equal pay for equal work

• Equal pay for equal work applies when there is “equal work” meaning the employees perform substantially the same kind of work in the same establishment, the work requires substantially the same skill, effort and responsibility and is performed under similar working conditions. All of these conditions must be met for equal pay for equal work to be required. 

• “Substantially the same kind of work” means the work does not have to be exactly the same. What matters is the actual work performed by the employees, not the stated conditions of their job offer or their job description.

6. What is the charter of rights and freedom

• Federal law enacted in 1982 that guarantees fundamental freedoms to all Canadians. 

• basic rights for all Canadians

• Supersedes all other laws

7. Whom does the human rights legislation affect

• protection from discrimination (every province has their own)

8. All jurisdictions prohibit discrimination on the grounds of…

•  in employment situations and in the delivery of goods and services

9. What is employment equity

• based on Charter of Rights and Freedoms

• applies to federally regulated employers only

• promotes equality, removes employment barriers

• four designated groups: women, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, Aboriginal peoples

10. What is intentional/direct discrimination

• Except in specific circumstances known as bona fide occupational requirement (that will be described later), intentional discrimina- tion is prohibited. An employer cannot discriminate directly by deliberately refusing to hire, train, or promote an individual

11. What is systematic discrimination

• Discrimination that is embedded in policies and practices that appear neutral on the surface and are implemented impartially, but have an adverse impact on specific groups of people for reasons that are not job related or required for the safe and efficient operation of the business. 

12. What is BFOR(Bona fide Occupational Requirement

• A justifiable reason for discrimination based on business necessity (that is, the discrimination is required for the safe and efficient operation of the organization) or a requirement that can be clearly defended as intrinsically required by the tasks an employee is expected to perform. 

13. What is Harassment

• Unwelcome behaviour that demeans, humiliates, or embarrasses a person and that a reasonable person should have known would be unwelcome. 

Chapter 3

1. Define Organizational Structure

• the formal relationships among jobs in an organization

• should be appropriate given strategic goals

2. Organization chart refers to

• A “snapshot” of the firm, depicting the organization’s structure in chart form at a particular point in time. 

3. What is job design

• The process of improving organizational efficiency and employee satisfaction through technological and human considerations. 

4. What is the difference between a position and a job

• Job (something you do, what you must do a fulfill your job): A group of related activities/duties for one or more employees

• Position (individual in a job): The collection of tasks/responsibilities performed by one person

5. What is industrial engineering

• A field of study concerned with analyzing work methods; making work cycles more efficient by modifying, combining, rearranging, or eliminating tasks; and establishing time standards. 

6. What is job enrichment

• (vertical  loading) Any effort that makes an employee’s job more rewarding or satisfying by adding more meaningful tasks and duties. 

7. What is job enlargement

• A technique to relieve monotony and boredom that involves assigning workers additional tasks at the same level of responsibility to increase the number of tasks they have to perform. 

8. What is ergonomics

• An interdisciplinary approach that seeks to integrate and accommodate the physical needs of workers into the design of jobs. It aims to adapt the entire job system—the work, environment, machines, equipment, and processes—to match human characteristics.

9. What is job analysis

• the process of gathering and analyzing information about the content and the human requirements of jobs, as well as, the context in which jobs are performed. 

10. What are the steps in job analysis

• Steps in Job Analysis

Step 6: Communicate and update information as needed

              Step 5: Write job descriptions and job specifications

               Step 4: Verify/modify data if required

          Step 3: Collect data on job activities 

                  Step 2: Select jobs to be analyzed

              Step 1: Review relevant background information

11. What is a job description

• A list of the duties, responsibilities, reporting relationships, and working conditions of a job—one product of a job analysis. 

12. What is a job specification

• A list of the “human capital requirements,” that is, the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform the job—another product of a job analysis. 

13. Collecting job analysis data involves whom

• Job analysis information can be obtained from individual workers, groups, supervisors, observers, and, on occasion, subject matter experts. Interviews, observations, or questionnaires can be used.

Chapter 4

1. What is the human resource planning

• Human resources planning (HRP) is the process of forecasting future human resources requirements to ensure that the organization will have the required number of employees, at the right time, with the necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities to meet its strategic objectives. 

2. What are the solutions for labour demand exceeding supply

• modifications to their attraction and recruitment strategies, including the labour pools they tap into and the incentives they offer to retain workers. 

3. What are the solutions for when labour supply exceeds demand

• reduce the workforce due to over-supply, or increase the workforce in response to labour shortages.

4. How does effective HRP help an organization

• Effective HRP helps an organization achieve its strategic goals and objectives by forecasting the supply of, and demand for, employees under changing conditions. Those responsible for HR planning, at a very fundamental level, oversee a series of related processes that predict the flow of necessary human capital in, through, and out of the organization. 

5. Inadequate HR planning results in what?

• Lack of or inadequate human resources planning within an organization can result in significant costs when unstaffed positions affect productivity and quality customer service. It may also negatively affect an organization’s financial perfor- mance due to severance pay owed to large numbers of employees who have received termination notices. It can also create situations in which one depart- ment is laying off employees while another is hiring individuals with similar skills, which can reduce morale or productivity and can often increase turnover. The greater concern is that ineffective HRP can lead to an organization’s inability to accomplish short-term operational plans or long-range strategic objectives. 

6. What are the external environment factors most frequently monitored

• Economic conditions (local, regional, national, international): For example, if the unemployment rate in a region is low, an organization would have to be more aggressive in recruiting job candidates, as availability of talent may be more scarce.

• Market and competitive trends: For example, compensation policies that lag behind competitors’ policies may result in higher turnover or more difficul- ties in attracting talent.

• New or revised laws and the decisions of courts and quasi-judicial bodies: For example, a raise in the minimum wage rate can inflate the cost of labour in an organization, therefore creating budgetary pressure to reduce labour expenses. 

• Social concerns such as health care, child care, and educational priorities: For example, a trend toward securing higher education can reduce the size of the available external workforce in the short run, but in the longer run can result in retaining applicants with more specialized training.

• Technological changes affecting processes, prod- ucts, and people: For example, a new technology developed can be implemented in the organization and significantly reduce labour demands through automation of a previously labour-intensive process.

• Demographic trends of an internal and external labour force: For example, if an organization is situated in a community largely inhabited by senior citizens, it may face difficulties securing a diverse or full-time workforce from the local area. In addition, HR planning can assist with meeting employment equity goals, as legislated (as per Chapter 2). 

7. What are the steps in HR planning

8. What does unemployment rate mean

• measures unemployment and is expressed as a percentage of the total labour force, which is the total number of people who are 15 years of age and over who are either employed or unemployed.

9. What are the drawbacks of attrition

   1. attrition The normal separation of employees from an organization because of resignation, retirement, or death.

   2. Some organizations attempt to accelerate attrition by offering incentives to employees to leave, such as early retirement or buyout programs. 

   3. Drawbacks: buyouts/ early retirement programs require lots of money up front, and early retirement must be entirely voluntary