human resource management purpose

8/12/2019 human resource management Purpose

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Chapter 1 & 2

Objectives of human resource management;

i.

To attract potentially qualified people to apply to the organisation.ii. To retain productive employees and motivate employee.

Recruitment

Recruitment is the process of attracting suitable people to apply for job vacancies.

Selection

Selection is the process of choosing a suitable applicant to fill an available job vacancy.

The skills and attributes required of human resource practitioners include:

(a) Communication Skills; A HR practitioner needs to be able to communicate clearly

and persuasively to a variety of stakeholders - the skill is far more than language

skills; be able to explain and defend company policies, suggest improvements to the

organizational practices, listen to worker complaints, strong interpersonal skills to

counsel workers with problems at the workplace.

(b) Ability to Bring About Change; change agents at the workplace - when new

procedures/policies are introduced which impact employees, HR find appropriate

ways to persuade the workers to accept the changes

(c) Information Technology (IT) Savvy; delivery of services to workers in the

organization and keeping of records; such as leave and benefits administration - being

done through the use of various technologies, especially computerization of databases,

e-learning packages.

(d) Numerate and Able to Analyse Data; Policy making requires hard facts. Data must

be collected and analysed. For example, wage and benefit surveys must be conducted,

as should opinion surveys. Cost of training, recruitment and other HR initiatives must

be calculated.

(e) Ability to Understand the Business Context

HR managers must understand the business in which they are employed. They need to

know the current trends in the industry at national and international levels.


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Chapter 3: Training

Training and development is the planned, continuous effort by management to improve

employee competency levels and organizational performance. Training is for now while

development is for the future.

Jobs have become increasingly complex and ever-changing so even qualified people are not

fully competent to perform without training. Rapidly advancing technology has made the

need more important. Employees working for a long time require training as changing

technology influences jobs. Need to improve employee productivity and organizations

profitability. Need to prevent obsolescence of skills at all levels. Need to upgrade employees

skills to enable them

Chapter 4: Managing Employee Performance and Performance Appraisal

The essentials of an effective performance appraisal system;

i.

Planning to establish performance standards that become benchmarks

ii.

Dependable performance measures

iii.

Fair comparisons of measures and benchmarks (actual appraisal)

iv.

Face-to-face feedback session

v.

Management decisions like rewards or coaching, counselling, or disciplining to encourage

and improve performance

An effective performance appraisal scheme has the following characteristics:

a) It is based on targets/goals/objectives that are achievable, measurable and understood

by the employee concerned.

b) It uses a format/appraisal form that is understood by the manager and the employee

being appraised.

c) It involves a frank discussion between the manager and the employee concerning the

employees performance.

d) It reduces, as far as possible, bias affecting the assessment of the employees

performance.

e)

It is carried out on a regular basis, without having an excessively long period from

one appraisal to the next. At the minimum, the appraisal should be on an annual basis,

although more frequent appraisal would be better.

f)

It relies on accurate information collected over the entire period for which

performance is being appraised and is based on a variety of sources, otherwise known

as multi-rater appraisal or 360 degree feedback.

g) It provides for an appeal system whereby if the employee feels that his managers

appraisal of him is not fair, he can raise the matter with a higher authority.

The main benefits which may be derived from an effective performance appraisal schemeare:


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a) Improved performance by individual employees which contributes to the success of

the enterprise. Employees are given feedback on their strengths and weaknesses, and

are given help to reduce their weaknesses in performance.

b) Information on training needs amongst employees. This information forms the basis

for training plans for the organization and ensures the training budget is spentappropriately, i.e. on training employees who need help to do their work.

c) A channel of communication is opened up between manager and subordinate.

Although managers should speak to their subordinates about their performance on a

regular basis, in reality, many managers find it difficult to spend the time discussing

past performance and future plans for each employee they supervise. A performance

appraisal scheme makes this discussion compulsory.

d)

The determination of which workers deserve monetary and other rewards, including

promotion. Without a fair and transparent performance appraisal scheme, these

decisions may seem to be arbitrary and due to personal influence rather than ability to

perform.

e) The existence of documentation concerning the performance of an employee and how

he was treated, which is needed should he be dismissed for poor performance. The

Industrial Court expects employees to have their performance fairly assessed prior to

any decision to dismiss on the grounds of poor performance. The evidence that this

has been done is the performance appraisal forms signed by the supervisor.

Chapter 5: Payment Systems

The key characteristics of a benefit package which is likely to be attractive to employees.

a) The package must be easily understood, i.e. employees understand their

entitlements and how to apply for these benefits. Employee handbooks or online

explanations and forms would be helpful in this regard.

b) The benefits must be relevant to the needs of the individual employees. Thus,

extra maternity leave would not be attractive or relevant to male employees. A

flexi-benefit scheme would help achieve this objective.

The benefits must be equal to or better than those provided by other employers. For

this purpose, employers must conduct regular benefit surveys to determine changes in

offerings by other employers, especially competitors.

Chapter 6: Benefits and Rewards

Benefits must be provided by employers to employees within the scope of the Employment

Act, the Sabah or Sarawak Labour Ordinance.

a) Paid sick leave (14, 18 or 22 days per year, depending upon the length of the

employees service).

b) Paid annual leave (8, 12, or 16 days per year, depending upon the length of the

employees service).c) A minimum of 10 paid public holidays per year.


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Chapter 7: Safety and Health at Work

Grievances can be caused by a variety of causes including:

(i)

Dissatisfaction with terms and conditions of employment caused bymisunderstandings during the recruitment and selection process;

(ii) Compensation packages perceived as unfair;

(iii)

Bullying and other forms of stress inducing behaviour;

(iv)

Unsafe working conditions, and

(v)

Unfair disciplinary systems.

Chapter 8: Improving Productivity and Employee Commitment

The role of the employer and employee in developing an employees career.

The employer plays a major role in developing an employees career. The employer can

assess the interests and abilities of the employee, usually through an assessment centre which

may be conducted in-house or may be contracted out to a consultant with the appropriate

expertise. The employer can provide career counselling so that the employee knows what

career paths are available in the organization. The company can facilitate the employees

movement along these career paths by providing suitable training and assignments which

may include transfers and secondments. The employees role is to analyse his strengths,

weaknesses and interests so that he can decide what development interventions would beuseful. The employee needs to undertake training assignments and carry them out to the best

of his or her abilities.

Key criteria for successful quality control circles.

a) An appropriate support structureManagement must provide support to the

programme by appointing facilitators and steering committee and providing an

appropriate budget. They must show their support publicly by attending QCC

activities.

b)

TrainingAll parties involved in QCCs need ongoing training in a variety of

skills and activities including how to organize their QCC meetings, how to

carry out statistical analysis and the use of various problem-solving tools.

c) To encourage employees to participate and to develop a climate of

competition between groups, adequate publicity must be given to group

activities.

d) A suitable reward system which may include financial and non-financial

rewards to encourage workers to willingly participate.


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Chapter 9: Disciplinary Systems

To deal with sexual harassment at the workplace an employer should do the following:

a) Train employees so that they all understand what types of behaviour constitute sexual

harassment and the harm it does to victims and the organization where it occurs. Thetraining should also include explanation on what victims should do when faced with

sexual harassment at work.

b)

Appoint and train a special investigating committee so that allegations of sexual

harassment can be properly handled.

c)

Establish a written policy and procedure which clarifies that the employer will not

tolerate sexual harassment and what an employee should do when faced with

harassment.

d)

Take prompt action to investigate, and where appropriate institute disciplinary action

against any sexual harasser.

The procedures necessary if an employee is to be dismissed on the grounds of poor

performance.

If an employer does not follow fair procedures prior to dismissing an employee, the employee

may file a claim against the employer, either at the Labour Department or at the Industrial

Relations Department or at the High Court. The cost of defending this claim is high and if the

employer loses, he may either have to reinstate the employee or pay compensation.

Before dismissing an employee on the grounds of poor performance, the employer must

follow the following procedures:

a) Inform the employee, preferably in writing, that his performance is not acceptable and

give details as to the problems with the performance.

b)

Assist the employee to improve by offering coaching, training, counselling or any

other relevant help.

c)

Set a time frame within which the employee is expected to improve. The time given

should be reasonable in the circumstances.

d)

Only after the above has been implemented and the employee has nevertheless not

improved can he be dismissed.

To avoid retrenching workers when company is overstaffed?

a)

Freezing external recruitment, except for jobs that cannot be filled by existing

staff, and transferring redundant staff into vacancies that occur when

employees leave. This step will generally require extra effort to train and

retrain the workers who are being redeployed.

b)

Cutting back all unnecessary costs and luxuries to save money so that

employees jobs can be saved for as long as possible.


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c)Offering a Voluntary Separation Scheme, including Early Retirement Scheme,

to encourage employees to resign.

d)Reducing wages and other benefits, if the employees agree, so as to protect

jobs for as long as possible.

Sexual Harrassment;

There are two categories of sexual harassment, namely sexual coercion and sexual

annoyance. Sexual Coercion is a type of harassment which has direct results in some

consequence to the victim's employment. It is an employment discrimination. Sexual

coercion is under a condition of employment, where an openly or implicitly offer in keeping a

job or getting a promotion is made by a supervisor to an employee in exchange for sexual

favors. Such person normally has the power over promotion or raise of the employee.

In sexual coercion, promotion and favorable job benefits will follow if an employee takes theadvantage and consented to sex. On the contrary, if the employee rejects, the job benefits are

denied. The second type of harassment - sexual annoyance is also known as hostile

environment sexual harassment. Sexual annoyance is a demeaning and unwelcome sexually

related behavior that is offensive, hostile or intimidating to the victim, but has no direct

connection to any job benefits. However, the annoying behavior creates an offensive working

environment which affects the victim's ability to continue working. Sexual annoyance

includes sexual harassment by an employee against a co-employee. Similarly, sexual

harassment by a company's customer against an employee also falls into this category.

Chapter 10: Industrial Relations

Employees join trade unions for a variety of reasons. There are three major reasons why

employees become union members. These are:

a) Economic reasons. Typically, individuals have little bargaining power. When

offered wages and other benefits as a package by the employer in return for

their work, they either take it or leave it. Their ability to bargain other items is

strictly limited, because generally, workers need a job more than an employer

needs any particular worker. Trade unions can conduct collective bargaining

on behalf of the workers in an establishment to improve the terms and

conditions offered, or at the very least, if there is a financial crisis, they will

endeavour to maintain the current terms and not allow the employer to reduce

them.

b) Protection of rights, especially security of employment. Unions will try to

ensure their members are not exploited by their employers. One of the most

important rights to employees is security of employment. Unions try to protectjobs. They will negotiate with employers to save jobs if the company is facing


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a financial crisis and they may lobby the government on policies which impact

on the right of an employer to retrench. When an employee is faced with

dismissal on the grounds of misconduct, his union will try to defend him as far

as possible.

c)

Employees join unions for social reasons. Workers, as with all other persons,have social needs. This can be met by joining with other workers in a trade

union which also provides opportunities for workers to exercise leadership and

to give assistance to their fellow workers. Camaraderie and solidarity are

important concepts in the union movement.

Employees in Malaysia can go on strike as this is a legal activity, providing various

conditions are met. These conditions are:

a)

The employees must be members of a registered trade union.

b) The employees must have a trade dispute with their employer.

c)

The employees who have a trade dispute must take a secret ballot before they go on

strike. The strike is only permissible if two-thirds of the union members concerned

vote for the strike action.

d) The strike ballot papers must be sent to the Director-General of Trade Unions

(DGTU) within 14 days of taking the ballot.

e)

The employees must wait for at least 7 days after sending the ballot papers to the

DGTU before commencing the strike.

f)

If the dispute is referred to the Industrial Court for arbitration (after the breakdown of

conciliation talks), the strike action must be cancelled.

g)

In practice, nearly all disputes not settled at conciliation are immediately referred tothe Industrial Court.

Thus, while it is possible in theory for employees to go on strike legally, it is very rare for

this to happen because of the procedures laid down in the law. Failure to follow the required

procedures is a serious offence for which individuals as well as any trade union involved

could be prosecuted.

The changes that may occur if an employees union is formed?

i. presence of union changes relationship between management and employees

ii. HR department and line managers and supervisors will find their roles altered.

iii. more formal rules and regulations

iv.

less management or supervisory discretion allowed

v. management staff no longer allowed to act according to their whims and fancies.

vi.

possible increase in fringe benefits for employees

human resource management purpose

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