human resource management.
Chapter 9 in your text discusses various aspect of human resource management.
Do you think that all managers need to have a firm grasp of human resources processes and procedures? Why or Why not.
Remember to take a side and support your argument . Use examples whenever possible.
and one reference from outside.
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9.1
Strategic Human Resource Management
MAJOR QUESTION How do effective managers view the role of people in their organization’s success?
THE BIG PICTURE
Human resource management consists of the activities managers perform to plan for, attract, develop, and retain an effective workforce. Planning the human resources needed consists of understanding current employee needs and predicting future employee needs.
How do you get hired by one of the companies on Fortune magazine’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list—companies such as Google, SAS Institute, Boston Consulting Group, Edward Jones, and Genentech, which are on the 2016 list? 12
You try to get to know someone in the company, suggests one guide. 13 You play up volunteer work on your resume. You get ready to interview and interview and interview. And you do extensive research on the company—far more than just online research, as by talking to customers.
And what kinds of things does an employee of a Fortune “Best” company get? At Google (now part of Alphabet), the Mountain View, California, search engine company (ranked No. 1 Best Company seven times in the last 10 years), you’re entitled to eat in 1 of 11 free gourmet cafeterias, take your dog to work, get haircuts on-site, work out at the gym, study Mandarin or other languages, have your laundry done free, and get virtual doctor visits. You may also be a candidate for millions of dollars in compensation incentives, special bonuses, and founders’ awards. 14
The reason for this exceptional treatment? “Happy people are more productive,” says Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, now executive chairman of Alphabet. 15 That productivity has made the company an earnings powerhouse; for 2015, for example, it reported a 14% growth in revenue and 38% growth in profits for its core Internet businesses. 16 Google has discovered, in other words, that its biggest competitive advantage lies in its human resources—its people.
Human Resource Management: Managing an Organization’s Most Important Resource
Human resource (HR) management consists of the activities managers perform to plan for, attract, develop, and retain an effective workforce. Whether it’s McKenzie looking for entry-level business consultants, the U.S. Navy trying to fill its ranks, or churches trying to recruit priests and ministers, all organizations must deal with staffing.
The fact that the old personnel department is now called the human resources department is not just a cosmetic change. It is intended to suggest the importance of staffing to a company’s success. Although talking about people as “resources” might seem to downgrade them to the same level as financial resources and material resources, in fact, people are an organization’s most important resource.
Indeed, companies ranked No.1 on Fortune magazine’s Best Companies list in the past—which, besides Google, include SAS, NetApp, Genentech, Wegmans Food Markets, J. M. Smucker, Edward Jones, and The Container Store—have discovered that putting employees first has been the foundation for their success. “If you’re not thinking all the time about making every person valuable, you don’t have a chance,” says former General Electric head Jack Welch. “What’s the alternative? Wasted minds? Uninvolved people? A labor force that’s angry or bored? That doesn’t make sense!” 17
Clearly, companies listed among the best places to work become famous by offering progressive and valued programs, policies, and procedures. 18 Are you curious to see if a current or past employer is one of these progressive companies? You can find out by taking Self-Assessment 9.1 .
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SELF-ASSESSMENT 9.1 https://html1-cluster-e.mheducation.com/smartbook2/data/151605/highlighted_epubmhe/OPS/img/designelements/connect_art_rev.png
Assessing the Quality of HR Practices
This survey is designed to assess the quality of HR practices at your current place of employment. If you are not currently working, consider a previous job when completing the survey. Please be prepared to answer these questions if your instructor has assigned Self-Assessment 9.1 in Connect.
1. How did you rate the quality of the company’s HR practices?
2. Based on your responses, what advice would you give the senior HR leader about how to improve its HR practices? Be specific. What are the consequences of having poor-quality HR practices? Explain.
Human Resources as Part of Strategic Planning
Some companies—those with flat management structures, for instance—have done away with HR departments entirely, letting the regular line managers handle these tasks. But most workers say they feel the absence of an in-house HR staff, especially when it comes to resolving pay problems and mediating employee disputes. 19 So what should organizations do in regard to investing in human resources? Based on research findings, we come down on the side that people are an organization’s most important asset and it’s important to invest in human resources. All told, studies show that companies have higher levels of employee satisfaction, financial performance, and service performance when the company has high-quality human resource practices and programs. 20 At many companies, human resources has become part of the strategic planning process. Thus, HR departments deal not only with employee paperwork and legal accountability—a very important area, as we describe in Section 9.7 —but also with helping to support the organization’s overall strategy.
Example: Is it important, as Wegmans’s owners think, to have loyal, innovative, smart, passionate employees who will give their best to promote customer satisfaction (the grocery chain’s mission)? Who, then, should be recruited? How should they be trained? What’s the best way to evaluate and reward their performance? The answers to these questions should be consistent with the firm’s strategic mission.
The purpose of the strategic human resource process, then—shown in the gold shaded boxes at right—is to get the optimal work performance that will help the company’s mission and goals. 21 (See Figure 9.1 .)
FIGURE 9.1 The strategic human resource management process A figure illustrates the steps in the strategic human resource management process Access the text alternative for Figure 9 1.
Three concepts important in this view of human resource management are human capital, knowledge workers, and social capital.
Human Capital: Potential of Employee Knowledge and Actions
“We are living in a time,” says one team of human resource management authors, “when a new economic paradigm—characterized by speed, innovation, short cycle times, quality, and customer satisfaction—is highlighting the importance of intangible assets, such as brand recognition, knowledge, innovation, and most particularly human capital.” 22 Human capital is the economic or productive potential of employee knowledge, experience, and actions. 23
Scripps Health, a nonprofit health care system in San Diego and 42nd on Fortune’s 2016 list of “Best Places to Work For,” helps employees develop human capital by providing career coaching and up to $7,300 per year in tuition reimbursement and scholarships. The company also offers a wide variety of internal courses that focus on employee development. 24
It’s also important to take responsibility for your own human capital. You may find this surprising, but a recent study showed that lack of sleep depletes your human capital and lowers performance. 25 To perform at their best, people need their full ration of sleep.
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Knowledge Workers: Potential of Brain Workers
A knowledge worker is someone whose occupation is principally concerned with generating or interpreting information, as opposed to manual labor. Knowledge workers add value to the organization by using their brains rather than their muscle and sweat, and as such they are the most common type of worker in 21st-century organizations. 26 Over the past three decades, automation has threatened a lot of routine jobs, but the rise of knowledge workers has been accelerating.
Social Capital: Potential of Strong and Cooperative Relationships
Social capital is the economic or productive potential of strong, trusting, and cooperative relationships. It can help you land a job. For example, a national survey of recruiters revealed that 74% had found the highest-quality job applicants came through employee referrals. Employees hired through referrals also tend to stay longer at their jobs, a result of better person–organization fit. 27
Social capital is also beneficial beyond the early stages of your career, particularly when you are developing trusting relationships with others. Trusting relationships lead to more job and business opportunities, faster advancement, greater capacity to innovate, and more status and authority. 28 All told, it pays to have a rich network of good relationships, and social capital helps makes this possible.
Planning the Human Resources Needed
When a building contractor, looking to hire someone for a few hours to dig ditches, drives by a group of idle day laborers standing on a street corner, is that a form of HR planning? Certainly it shows the contractor’s awareness that a pool of laborers usually can be found in that spot. But what if the builder needs a lot of people with specialized training—to give him or her the competitive advantage that the strategic planning process demands?
Here we are concerned with something more than simply hiring people on an “as needed” basis. …
