Chapter 15: Human Resources Management
Employees: The Key to Success
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Human Resources
- Human resources are the people employed in a business, commonly referred to as personnel.
- Managing human resources is not the same as supervising workers.
- Human resources management is the process of finding, selecting, training, and evaluating employees.
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Meeting Staffing Needs
- A job description is a detailed outline of the duties, qualifications, and conditions required to do a specific job
- The job might also require a certain level of experience and education.
- It could be part-time, full-time, permanent, or temporary.
- To attract and keep good employees, businesses must offer competitive compensation.
- Compensation is pay and benefits.
- Pay can be in the form of a wage or a salary.
- A wage is an amount of money paid to an employee on an hourly basis.
- A salary is a fixed amount of pay for each week, month, or year.
- Benefits are extra compensation that workers receive such as health and life insurance, sick leave, holiday pay, and retirement plans.
- Retirement plans provide employees with money after working at a company for a certain number of years.
- Some companies offer pension plans.
- A pension plan is a retirement plan that is funded at least in part by an employer.
- A profit-sharing plan makes an annual contribution to an employee’s retirement fund when the company makes a profit.
- Another type of retirement plan is a 401(k).
- With a 401(k), employees set aside a percentage of funds from each paycheck to go into their 401(k) investment account.
- Many employers match a percentage of an employee’s contribution to a 401(k).
- Human resources managers often work as recruiters.
- Recruitment means actively looking for qualified people to fill a job
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Considering Job Applicants
- After recruiting job applicants, a human resources manager has to decide which one to hire.
- There are four steps to selecting the right person or candidate for the job.
- First, the recruiter must review each candidate’s application and/or résumé.
- An application is a form companies give to potential employees to complete.
- It lists their work experience, education, skills, and references.
- A résumé is a worker’s summary of academic and work history.
- Reviewing the application and résumé leads to the screening step.
- Screening is a system of selecting suitable people for a job
- The next step is for the human resources manager to interview qualified candidates.
- An interview is a meeting in which a recruiter asks an applicant questions to see if the applicant is right for a job.
- Many companies test job candidates as part of the interview process.
- Testing helps companies make sure that job candidates have the right skills and character for a job.
- The human resources manager’s final step before hiring a new employee is to check the applicant’s background and references.
- A background check is the process of verifying certain information provided by a job applicant
- A reference is someone who comments on a job applicant’s character and qualifications for a job
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Developing and Retaining Employees
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Developing Employees
- Orientation is the process of helping new employees adjust to a company.
- New employees usually need some training for the specific job they were hired to do.
- On-the-job training involves learning a new job by actually doing it.
- Group training involves teaching several employees in a class.
- Job rotation moves employees to different tasks or departments to help them gain experience.
- Job rotation also prevents boredom and increases morale.
- Morale is the general level of confidence or enthusiasm felt by a person or group of people.
- Soft skills refer to personality traits and personal abilities such as social skills, language skills, personal habits, and friendliness.
- Soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job.
- A performance appraisal is an evaluation of how well an employee is doing a job.
- Employees are evaluated periodically.
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Changes in Employee Status
- A promotion gives an employee a higher-level job with more authority, responsibility, and pay.
- Promotions are also given on the basis of seniority.
- Seniority is the status given to an employee based on rank or length of service.
- A transfer is a move to another job within a company, usually at the same level and pay.
- Separation is leaving a company for any reason.
- A voluntary separation occurs when an employee resigns or retires.
- When an employee voluntarily leaves, an exit interview is given to pinpoint why the employee is leaving.
- Involuntary separations include layoffs and terminations.
- A worker may be fired or terminated if he or she breaks rules, becomes unable to perform at the expected level, or cannot get along with others.
- If the company needs to downsize, employees might be laid off.
- A layoff occurs when there is not enough work for all employees.
- Turnover is the number of employees who leave an organization and are replaced over time
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