SHRM-CP Study Guide Notes

US Laws & Regulations

When you have one or more employees
1.1: The Clayton Act (1914):
o Modified the Sherman Anti-Trust Act; prohibiting mergers and acquisitions that
would lessen competition
o Prohibits a single person from being a director of two or more competing
corporations
o Restricts the use of injunctions against labor and legalized peaceful strikes, picketing,
and boycotts.
1.2: Consumer Credit Protection Act (1968):
o Express limits to amount of wages garnished or withheld in any week by an employer
to satisfy creditors.
o Prohibits employee dismissal due to a garnishment for any (1) indebtedness.
1.3: Copeland (Anti-Kickback) Act (1934):
o Precludes federal (sub)contractor from inducing an employee to sacrifice his/her
wages to employer for benefit of having a job.
1.4: The Copyright Act (1976):
o Offers protection of "original works" for authors so others may not print, duplicate,
distribute, or sell their work.
o Copyright Term Extension Act (1998): further extended copyright protection to the
duration of the author's life plus 70 years for general purposes and 95 years for works
made for hire and works copyrighted before 1978.
1.5: Davis-Bacon Act (1931):
o Requires (sub)contractors on certain federally funded or assisted construction
projects over $2,000 in US to pay wages and fringe benefits at least equal to
prevailing wage in area of work performed.
1.6: Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010):
o Nonbinding vote for parachutes for shareholders on executive compensation, golden
parachutes, and return of executive compensation based on inaccurate financial
statements.
o Requirements to report to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay compared to average
employee compensation and provision of financial rewards for whistleblowers.
1.7: Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA) (2001):
o Modified the Internal Revenue Code, adjusted pension vesting schedules, increasing
retirement plan limits, permitting pre-tax catch-up contributions by participants over
the age of 50 in certain plans.
1.8: Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) (1986):
o Wiretap and Stored Communications Acts combined; provides rules for access, use,
disclosure, interpretation, and privacy protections of electronic communications.
o Prohibits interception of emails in transmission and access to emails in storage.
o Notices must be given to someone subject to observation or recording.
1.9: Employee Polygraph Protection Act (1988):
o Prohibits the use of lie detector tests for job applicants and employees of companies
engaged in interstate commerce. (FEDERAL POSTER REQUIREMENT)
1.10: Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) (1974):
o Establishes minimum uniform standards to ensure employee benefit plans are
established and maintained in a fair and financially sound manner.
o Protects employees from losses in benefits due to job changes, plant closings,
bankruptcies, or mismanagement.
o Public-sector employees and many churches are not subject to ERISA.
1.11: Equal Pay Act (1963):
o Amendment to the FLSA is enforced by the EEOC; prohibits employers from
discriminating on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees at a rate less than
the rate paid to opposite sex employees on the basis of equal skills, effort, and
responsibility.
1.12: FAA Modernization and Reform Act (2012):
o Amends the Railway Labor Act to change union certification election processes in the
railroad and airline industries; greater oversight of the National Mediation Board
(NMB).
o Requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) initially to evaluate NMB's
certification procedures; and audit every 2 years thereafter.
1.13: Fair & Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT) (2003):
o Amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act; employers are released from obligations
to disclose requirements and obtain employee consent if the investigation involves
suspected misconduct, a violation of law, regulations, or employer policies.
1.14: Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) (1970):
o Requires employers to notify any individual in writing if a credit report may be used in
making an employment decision. Employers need authorization from applicants
before asking the credit bureau for a credit report.
1.15: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (1938):
o Introduced a 44-hour, 7-day workweek, established a national minimum wage,
"overtime" for certain jobs, prohibited extensive child labor.
o FLSA was the first federal law to require employers to maintain employee records on
race and sex identification.
Provisions and Protections
 Covers public agencies, private agencies whose annual gross sales exceed
$500,000
 Operating a school or hospital, mental facility
 All schools
 Employees are covered when involved in interstate commerce.
 Prohibits shipments of goods in violation of the provisions.
Recordkeeping
 Exempt or non-exempt status attaches to the job, not the incumbent.
 You should already know the provisions of salaried vs. hourly employees,
including the rates for straight and premium rates of pay.
o Under FLSA, employers are required to keep the following information (specific to
nonexempt employees)
o Name, address, occupation, gender, DOB (<19 years of age)
o Day and time of the start of workweek
o Total hours employee worked during workday/workweek as a whole
o Employee's daily and weekly straight time earnings
o Employee's regular hourly rate of pay for weeks when overtime is worked
o Total overtime pay for workweek
o Any additions or deductions to employee's wages
o Total wages paid to employee during each pay period
o Date employee received payment for work performed, and pay period payment
covered
o Child Labor: Provision placed by the FLSA to ensure that working youth were
guaranteed a safe working environment that didn't pose a risk to their overall health
and wellbeing, or prevent them from pursuing additional educational opportunities.
o Youth under the age of 14 are only allowed to perform functions such as labor
delivery, babysitting, assisting in their parents' business.
o 14-15 can perform some retail work, yard work, and some kitchen/service work.
Not allowed to work more than 18 hours a week during the school year.
o Employers who fail to comply with the FLSA may face lawsuits from the Secretary of
Labor and wronged employees for repayment of backpay of proper minimum wages
and/or overtime pay.
o Preliminary Tasks: Activities prior to the start of principal workday activities
o Postliminary tasks: Activities following completion of principal workday activities
o Examples of postliminary tasks include on-call or standby time, meals and breaks,
travel time, and training time. Employers covered under FLSA must pay
employees traveling to perform job-related tasks if that travel is outside of
employee's regular work commute.
o Employers are also required to pay employees for any time they spend waiting to
start work when requested by employer, and paid for hours in a training outside
the employee's normal workday.
o Employers are to retain all payroll records, collective bargaining agreements, sales,
and purchase records for at least 3 years.
o Employers are to keep timecards, piecework records, wage rate tables, and work and
time schedules are to be maintained for at least two years
o (FEDERAL POSTER REQUIREMENT)
o An employer may designate that their work week begins at a given day and hour and
continues until that same day and hour 7 days later. Changes must be communicated
to employees in advance.
o Provisions of the FLSA are enforced by the US Department's Wage and Hour Division.
Willful violations may bring criminal prosecution and fines up to $10,000. WHD can
"freeze" shipments of any product manufactured if any wage and hour laws were
violated, overtime included.
 o 2-year limit applied to recovery unless there was a willful violation, which triggers
a 3-year liability.
1.16: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) (1997):
o Prohibits American companies from bribery payments to foreign officials for purpose
of obtaining or keeping business.
1.17: Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) (2009):
o Requires anyone with custody of personal health records send notice to affected
individuals if their health records have been disclosed (or believe so), to any
unauthorized person.
o Enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), made
several changes to HIPAA:
o Established standard (federal) for security breach notifications that require
covered entities of a PHI breach.
1.18: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (1996):
o Amendment of ERISA to improve the continuity and portability of healthcare
coverage to individuals who leave or lose their jobs. Act addresses any pre-existing
medical conditions.
o Employer can't refuse coverage in a new group health plan due to a pre-existing
medical condition and can't charge a higher rate for coverage.
o Act only permits covered entities to use or disclose protected health information
for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. If PHI is released for any
reason, written authorization is required from patient.
o Medication records under ADA or FMLA are not covered under this law.
1.19: Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) (1952):
o Addresses employment eligibility and employment verification. Defines conditions for
temporary and permanent employment of aliens in the US.
o Alien: Any person lacking citizenship or status as a national and US.
1.20: The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) (1986):
o First law to require new employees to prove both their identity and their right to
work in this country. This created the Form I-9, which employees and employers must
complete.
o Prohibits discrimination against job applicants on the basis of national origin or
citizenship.
1.21: IRS Immediate Sanctions (2002):
o Enacted by the IRS and applied to nonprofit organizations that engage in transactions
to benefit a disqualified person.
o Allows the IRS to impose penalties when it determines executives have received too
much compensation from their organizations.
1.22: Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) (1947):
o AKA Taft-Hartley Act, first national legislation that placed controls on unions.
o First national legislation that placed controls on unions for unfair labor practices and
outlaws, where union membership was required to keep your job.
o Requires both parties to act in good faith.
o Closed shops are considered illegal (union membership required).
1.23: Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (1959):
o Outlines procedures for re-addressing internal union problems, protects rights of
union members from corrupt or discriminatory labor unions, and applies to all labor
organizations.
o Specific requirements include:
 Conduct secret elections (which can be reviewed from US DOL)
 Bill of Right guarantees union members' rights including right to free speech
 Convicted felons and communists cannot hold officer positions in unions
 Annual financial reporting to US DOL is required.
 All union officials have a fiduciary responsibility in managing union assets and
conducting business of union.
 Union power to place subordinate organizations and trusteeship is limited.
 Minimum standards for union disciplinary action against members are provided.
1.24: Mine and Safety Health Act (1977):
o Brought all coal, metal, and nonmetal mining operations under the same Department
of Labor jurisdiction. Regulations and safety procedures for the coal mining industry
were not altered, just carried into the same agency.
Provisions and Protections
 Requires secretaries of labor, education, health, and welfare to create
regulations governing country's mines.
 Provide devices to protect respiration and fire prevention
Recordkeeping Requirements
 Employers must inspect their workplace operations and document results.
 Employees have rights to access all OSHA related reports, including emergency
operations and rescue procedures.
MSHA Standards
 Enforces mine safety standards that involve ventilation, chemical exposure,
noise, forklifts, and other mining equipment.
 MSDS must be available to employees in mining (overseen by OSHA).
 Citations are $1,000/day if out of compliance and/or in violation of regulations.
1.25: National Industry Recovery Act (1933):
o Posed the creation of the "Codes of Fair Competition" for each of several different
industries.
o If a business refused to participate in the code, it is license could be suspended, and
the business would cease operations. Declared unconstitutional and replaced by the
NLRA in 1935.
1.26: National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) (1935):
o Initially provided that employees have rights to form unions and negotiate wage and
hour issues with employers on behalf of union membership.
o NLRA grants employees right to organize, join unions, and engage in collective
bargaining activities.
o Established the NLRB, which helped define fair labor practices.
o NLRB has the power to accept and investigate unfair labor practices from
management or laborers.
 o Plays judicial role with an administrative setting.
o Right for workers to engage in collective bargaining, required employers to act in
good faith when bargaining with employees
o Unions represent all members equally, and represents all non-management
personnel in private industries who are not already covered by the Railway Labor Act.

1.27: The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act (2000):

• Modifies OSHA
o Requirements on Sharps Containers (razors, needles, knives, scalpels)
o Reduce and eliminate risk of injury due to using these devices.
o Injuries are supposed to be recorded on the OSHA300.
o Doesn't have employee's name, but should have "privacy case" listed.
o Bloodborne pathogens and transmission are key targets of this law, especially
HIV/AIDS
o Communication requirements (employees and employers).
1.28: The Norris-LaGuardia Act (1932):
• Prohibited yellow-dog contracts. Yellow-dog contracts are defined as employees promising
employers that they would not join unions.
• This law issued such contracts would not be enforceable in any court of law.
• Prohibited federal courts from issuing injunctions against peaceful strikes, boycotts, or
picketing, when used by a union in connected with a labor dispute.
• Define labor disputes as a disagreement about working conditions.
1.29: The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) (1970):
• OSHA statutory reporting requirements mandate reporting records are kept for 5 years
o Conduct, document, and inspect the workplace for safety and health hazards.
o Make information available to employees via MSDS (material safety data sheets)
o Employees that are 10+ must have a report posted in a conspicuous place for three
months.
o Full incident report must be maintained by employer and placed in a safety file for
FIVE YEARS
• Certain employers exempt from OSHA guidelines are classified by industry Standard
Industrial Classification Code (SIC).
• OSHA 300 form: Essence of a log of injuries that have happened over a calendar year.
o Information about days of work lost or restricted duties of employee. Log of
accidents.
o Must be summarized into 300A
• OSHA 300A Form: Summary of the OSHA 300 form. Must be posted in a conspicuous place
from 2/1- 4/30 each year.
• OSHA 301 Form: Asks for basic information such as name, address, DOB, who the tending
medical provider was, what happened, and what the employee was doing prior to injury.
o I&I Incident Report: Document reportable injury and required information above.
o Keep this report for 5 years
 • Law holds employers accountable for providing employees with a safe and healthy work
environment
o General Duty clause: Furnish employees free from recognized hazards likely to cause
death and serious injury. Employers must abide by all rules and regulations of OSHA.
• Inspections:
o Onsite visits conducted without an advance notice
o Onsite inspections and investigations (from OSHA)--5 business to contact back; 5
years to maintain report
o Highly trained compliance officers--provide training
o Inspections priority: imminent danger, fatality, and catastrophe (death or
hospitalization). If an employee dies, you have 8 hours to provide notifications to
OSHA.
o Workers make referrals to OSHA regarding unsafe practices of organization
o Follow-ups
o Plan/Program Investigation: OSHA can conduct investigation based on places that
have high deaths and investigations
o Inspection priorities include imminent danger, fatalities and catastrophes, referrals,
follow-ups, or planned/programmed investigations.
• OSHA Compliance
o Accident Reporting: OSHA requires that any accident that need first-aid don't need to
be documented
o OSHA defines first-aid as something that doesn't require prescription medication or
high-strength OTC, using wound coverages (band-aids), hot/cold therapy, elastic
bandages, back belts, temporary immobilization devices, draining blister, cotton
swab, using irrigation, using massages, drinking fluids for relief
o OSHA recordable (log of occupational injury or illness): Work related fatality or
injuries require hospitalization, medical treatment beyond first-aid, cancer,
irreversible cancer, hearing loss, TB
 Reports need to be submitted within one day of the incident.
• Normal vs. Emergency Temporary Standards
o Normal standards: several advisory committees may be called upon to develop
specific recommendations (two standing and one ad-hoc committee)
o Emergency Temporary Standards: OSHA must determine that workers are in grave
danger due to exposure to toxic substances or agents determined to be toxic or
physically harmful. Final rulings must be determined within six months, and can be
challenged via US Court of Appeals.
1.30: The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (1993):
• Reduces compensation limits in qualified retirement programs, and triggers increased
activity in nonqualified retirement programs; called for termination of some programs.
1.31: The Pension Protection Act (PPA) (2006):
• Requires employers to have underfunded pension plans to pay a higher premium to the
Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PGBC).
• Requires employers to terminate pension plans to provide additional funding to those
plans; huge impact to guidelines on IRAs.
1.32: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (1996):
• Requires all states to establish and maintain a new hire reporting system designed to
enhance enforcement of child support payments.
• Requires welfare recipients to begin working two years after receiving benefits.
• 5-year time limit for cash assistance; only have one exemption for a child under the age of
1.
1.33: The Portal-to-Portal Act (1947):
• Deals with the preliminary and post-liminary tasks of an employee. The act requires
employers to pay employees who are covered under the FLSA for time spent traveling to
perform job-related tasks if that travel is outside of the employees' regular work commute.
Additionally, employees are to be paid for hours spent in job related training that is outside
of their normal workday.
1.34: The Railway Labor Act (1926):
• Allows railway and airline employees to join unions; employers are encouraged to use the
National Mediation Board.
1.35: The Rehabilitation Act (1973):
• Replaced the Vocational Rehabilitation Act and created support for states to create
vocational rehabilitation programs.
o Section 501: Requires nondiscrimination and affirmative action in hiring disabled
workers by federal agencies in executive branches.
o Section 503: Requires nondiscrimination and affirmative action by federal contractors
and subcontractors with contracts >$10,000
o Section 504: Requires employers subject to the law to provide reasonable
accommodation for disabled individuals who can perform a majority of the job
functions with or without reasonable accommodation.
1.36: The Retirement Equity Act (REA) (1984):
• Provides certain legal protections for spousal beneficiaries of qualified retirement
programs.
• Prohibits changes to retirement plan elections, spousal beneficiary designations, or in-
service withdrawals without consent of a spouse.
• Permits plan administrators to presume spousal survivors’ annuity and reduce primary
pension amounts accordingly.
1.37: The Revenue Act (1978):
• Added two important sections to the IR Tax Code relevant to employee benefits: Section
125, Cafeteria Benefit Plans, and Section 401(K).
• Roth IRAs were involved with permitted funding with after-tax savings.
1.38: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) (2002):
• Federal regulation that is designed to establish higher levels of accountability and
standards for U.S. public institution boards and senior management.
o Act was passed in reaction to major global corporate and accounting standards such
as WorldCom and Enron, which were companies caught engaging in dubious financial
practices.
o Primary protects shareholders from any activity that conceals or misleads investors
about the firm's finances.
 o Firm has a mandate to report financial information transparently and accurately
either to the shareholders or the Securities and Exchange Commission.
o Requires administrators of defined contribution plans to provide notice of covered
blackout periods and provides whistleblower protection for employees.
o Lawson v. FMR LLC (2014)- The court ruled all contractors and subcontractors of
publicly held companies are subject to SOX, even if they are not publicly held.
o Internal control systems are required to assure public disclosure of financial
information is done as required.
o Enforcement of SOX is done by private-firm audits overseen by the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).
o Companies and corporate officers in violation of this act can find themselves subject
to fines and/or 20+ years imprisonment for altering, destroying, mutilating,
concealing, or falsifying records, documents, or tangible objects with intent to
obstruct, impede, or influence a legal investigation.
1.39: The Securities and Exchange Act (1934):
• Provides for governance in the "secondary market," which is all trading after the initial
public offering.
• Created the SEC, which has oversight authority for trading of stocks.
• Extends the "Disclosure" doctrine of investor protection to securities listed and registered
for public trading on any of the US Exchanges.
1.40: The Service Contract Act (SCA) (1965):
• Applies to federal (sub)contractors offering goods and services to the government, and
calls for payment of prevailing wages and benefit requirements to all employees providing
service under the agreement. Contract values more than $2,500 are covered.
• Enforced by the DOL's WHD and OSHA.
1.41: The Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890):
• Protected against monopolies and cartels; broke the Standard Oil Company into smaller
units.
• Attempting to restrict competition, fix prices, or trade restraints can be seen as a violation
of this law.
1.42: The Small Business Job Protection Act (1996) (SBJPA)
• Increased federal minimum wage levels and provided tax incentives to increase take-home
pay and protect jobs.
• Amended Portal-to-Portal Act for employees who use company vehicles.
• Created simple 401(k) plans to make them easier for small businesses.
• Tax incentives included:
o Employee education incentive (up to $5,250 of employee's taxable income)
o Increased maximum amount of capital expense allowed for a small business to
$7,000 per year.
o Replaced Targeted Jobs Tax Credit with Work Opportunity Tax Credit
o Provided tax credit to individuals who adopted a child.
1.43: The Social Security Act (1935):
• Designed program to ensure continuation of income for individuals who are retired,
spouses, and dependents of employees who are deceased or disabled.
 • Employees must work at least 10 years to qualify for this program. Payouts are dependent
upon time served as an employee and amount paid into the program.
• Individuals who qualify must be 62 years old to receive partial benefits, and 65-67 to
receive full benefits.
• Individuals who qualify for disability and receive benefits must prove they are unable to
perform profitable work.
• Payroll taxes are set by the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA).
• PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act) has been implemented.
1.44: The Tax Reform Act (1986):
• Reduction in tax brackets and tax rates for individuals.
• Required all dependent children to have SS Numbers. (important to know about filing your
W-4).
1.45: The Taxpayer Relief Act (1997):
• Passed to create new savings programs called Roth and Education IRAs for tax payments
during retirement.
1.46: The Trademark Act (1946):
• Created federal protections for trademarks and service marks. AKA the Lanham Act.
• Set requirements for registration of a trademark or service mark to obtain legal
protections.
1.47: The Unemployment Compensation Amendments Act (UCA) (1992):
• Established 20% withheld from payment of employee savings accounts when leaving an
employer, and not placing the funds into another tax-approved IRA or 401K.
1.48: The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Services Act (USERRA) (1994):
• Protects employment, reemployment, and retention rights of anyone who voluntarily or
involuntarily serves or has served in the uniformed services.
• Requires employers to continue paying for the benefits to the extent before reporting for
duty, also giving credit for length of service to the company.
1.49: The Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) (1974) [as amended by
the Jobs for Veterans Act (JVA) (2008)]
• Disabled veterans
• Veterans who served on active duty in US military during a war or campaign
• Veterans who served in Armed Forces, while a service medal was awarded (pursuant to
Executive Order 12985).
• Recently separated veterans.
• Applies to all federal contractors valued at $25,000 or more, regardless of total employees.
• Job posting protections except:
o Jobs will last <3 days.
o Jobs filled by an internal candidate.
o Jobs that are senior executive positions.
• Affirmative action outreach and recruiting of veterans is required for federal contractors
meeting the contract value threshold.
1.50: The Wagner-Peyser Act (1933) [as amended by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
(1998)]
 • Provided Employment Services Offices, and were ran by DOL's Employment and Training
Administration (ETA).
• Provided job seekers with assistance in their job search, recruitment services, and
assistance for those with UI benefits.
• WIA created "One Stop" centers within Employment Services Offices.
1.51: The Walsh-Healey Act (Public Contracts Act) (1936):
• Federal law applies to contractors working on federally funded supply contracts more than
$10,000. Employers associated with this act must be paid at least the federal minimum
wage--currently set at $7.25/hour and overtime pay (Calculated as 1 1/2 times the pay rate
for excess of 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a workweek).
• Employments of youth under age 16 and convicted felons are also prohibited under this
legislation.
• Defense Authorization Act (1968) later excluded federal contractors from overtime
payments more than 8 hours a day.
1.52: The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) (1996):
• Provides federal income tax credits to employers who hire from certain targeted groups of
job seekers who face unemployment barriers. Currently stands at $9,600/employee.
o TANF
o Qualified veterans receiving SNAP
 Have a hiring date not more than 1 year after having been discharged from
active duty
 Aggregate periods of unemployment during the 1-year period ending on the
hiring date that is equal to or greater than 6 months.
o Family members of veterans who received food stamps at least 3 months in a given
15 month period
o Ex-felons hired no later than one year after conviction or release from prison.
o Designated Community Resident (between ages of 18 and 40), and resides in
Empowerment Zone, Renewal Community, or Rural Renewal County.
o Vocational Rehabilitation Referrals.
o Summer youth ages 16-17 that reside in Empowerment Zone, Enterprise Community,
or Renewal Community.
o SNAP recipients 18-40.
o Qualified recipients of SSI.
o Long-term family assistance.
• HR professionals need to understand wage garnishments, liens, savings programs, income
tax, FICA, Medicare, and benefit premium contributions.
1.53: The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (1959):
• Outlines procedures for re-addressing internal union problems, protects rights of union
members from corrupt or discriminatory labor unions, and applies to all labor
organizations.
• Specific requirements include:
 Conduct secret elections (which can be reviewed from US DOL)
 Bill of Right guarantees union members' rights including right to free speech
 Convicted felons and communists cannot hold officer positions in unions
  Annual financial reporting to US DOL is required.
 All union officials have a fiduciary responsibility in managing union assets and
conducting business of union.
 Union power to place subordinate organizations and trusteeship is limited.
 Minimum standards for union disciplinary action against members are provided.
1.54: Whistleblowing
• Protections against retaliation for whistleblowing are covered under Civil Rights Acts,
OSHA, MSHA, SOX, ADA, and more.
• Designed to protect individuals who publicly disclose information about corrupt practices
or illegal activities within their employer's organization.
• Whistleblowers are protected from disciplinary action, termination, or other penalty.

2.1: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (1990):

• Applies to employers with 15+
• Disability is defined as substantially affecting one life function (1), but doesn't majorly
restrict the life function.
• Glasses are considered the only thing that are not a disability.
• Caring for ones self, eating, reaching, lifting, touching, concentrating, interacting with
others, communication, hearing, etc. are examples.
• However, these limitations cannot interfere with an essential job function.
• An essential job function is defined as a portion of a job assignment that cannot be
removed from the job without changing the nature of a job.
• Organizations must work with an employee on reasonable accommodations unless the
disability poses an undue hardship on the employer.
• Employers are required to consider disabled as someone with a condition that
"substantially limits," but does not "significantly restrict," a major life activity.
• Job Accommodation Network: A place where disabled persons can tap into for additional
resources for reasonable accommodation.
• The EEOC enforces the ADA (Title I). Agency will accept discrimination lawsuits based on
physical or mental disability. Once an employee has been identified as disabled and claims
they have been prohibited from an employee benefit due to a disability and it is (prima
facie) true on the surface. Employers cannot discriminate against an individual in
recruitment, hiring, promotions, training, pay, social activities, and other privileges of
employment.
• Once a case (charge of illegal discrimination) has been filed with the EEOC, the company
can no longer discuss the issue with the employee.
• The Developmental Disabilities Act of 1978 spoke specifically to people with developmental
disabilities; federally funded state programs to assist people in that category.
• Congress amended the ADA Amendment Act in 2008.
o Congress felt courts had been too restrictive in its interpretation in who qualifies as
disabled
o ADA Amendment Act captures a wider range of people who are classified as
"disabled."
 o Disability is now defined as "an impairment that substantially limits one or more
major life activities, having a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as
having such an impairment."
• Essential job function: Portion of a job assignment that cannot be removed from the job
without significantly changing the nature of the job.
• Job descriptions are not required by the ADA, but employers are doing so for prospective
applicants and employees to identify physical and mental requirements of each job.
• It is not necessary for an employer to redesign job content to make a job accommodation,
this would be considered a job reassignment.
2.2: Civil Rights Act (Title VII) (1964):
• Prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on sex, race, color,
national origin, and religion. Led to EEOC, which enforces and oversees laws against
workplace discrimination. Title VII applies to employers with >15 employees.
• HR should be free of any discriminatory verbiage when creating and posting job
descriptions.
• The following damages and penalties can be assessed if an employer was found to have
illegally discriminated against an employee:
o Actual Damages: Medical appointments/bills, lost wages (back pay), front pay, etc. 2
years into the past…unlimited number of years in the future.
o Compensatory Damages: Dollars to reimburse victim for "pain and suffering."
o Punitive Damages: Dollars assessed by the court to punish the employer for their
"egregious" acts in nature to the employee or job applicant.
2.3: The Civil Rights Act (1991):
• Modified Title VII in the following ways:
o Provided employees to receive a jury trial.
o Established requirements for any employer defense.
o Placed limitation on punitive damage awards by using a sliding scale (based on
employer size):
 15-100 employees- <$50,000
 100-200 employees- <$100,000
 201-500 employees- <$200,000
 >500 employees- <$300,000
2.4: Drug-Free Workplace Act (1988):
• Requires organizations to establish a drug-free workplace, provide a copy of this policy to
their employees, and institute a drug awareness program. Law applies to federal
contractors with contracts of $100,000 or more, and all organizations are federal grantees.
• Employers still have a right to perform drug screenings, even if there's state laws in place
for recreational and medical use of marijuana.
• Any federal contractor under the jurisdiction of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance
(OFCCP) in the DOL must comply with this legislation.
• The employer has 10 days to report whenever an employee has been convicted of a
criminal drug violation.
• Federal contractors under the jurisdiction of the OFCCP will find that the agency requires
proof of compliance when it conducts a general evaluation of affirmative action plans.
 • Employees who fail to adhere to this policy must be referred to a treatment program, or
given appropriate disciplinary action.
• Failing to maintain a Drug-Free Workplace can result in:
o Suspension of payments for contract or grant activities
o Suspension or cancellation of grant or contract
o Up to 5 years' prohibition from any further contracts or grants
2.5: The Equal Employment Opportunity Act (EEOA) (1972):
• REQUIRED WORKPLACE POSTER for all subject work locations explaining that "EEO is the
law."
2.6: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) (2008):
• Makes it illegal to discriminate against employees or applicants for genetic information
(disease, disorder)
• Brought about by insurance companies using genetic information to determine who would
likely have expensive diseases in the future; excluded employees from hiring and
enrollment in medical insurance programs.
2.7: Guidelines on Discrimination Because of Sex (1980):
• EEOC published these guidelines to assist employers in understanding what constituted
unwanted behavior and harassment; only provision to assist employers to help manage the
issues of sexual harassment at the time.
2.8: The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2009):
• Signed by president Obama in 2009 as his first piece of legislation.
• Created to address discrimination in pay gaps.
• States that each paycheck that contains discriminatory compensation is a separation,
therefore the statue of limitation resets with each paycheck. (180 days)
• Ledbetter v. Goodyear (2007)--law overturned this court case. This amends CRA of 1964.
o A woman's pay was less than a man's, and prevented her from professional
advancement.
2.9: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978):
• Illegal to discriminate against women for pregnancy and any medical conditions associated
with pregnancy.
2.10: Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1976):
• EEOC , DOL, and USCSC (United States Civil Service Commission) adopted the Uniform
Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP) to provide standards on what
constitutes discriminatory hiring practices.
• Two types of illegal employment discrimination:
o Disparate Treatment: Occurs when an employer treats protected classes differently
than other employees. (Genders with different standards, sexual harassment,
stereotyping).
o McDonnell Douglas Corporation vs. Green: Black employee who was laid off during a
regular reduction in force, and he believed his rejection was due to race. Precedent-
setting EEO case that established criteria for disparate treatment. This can be shown
if an employee:
o Belongs to a protected class
o Applied for a job while employer sought applicants
 o Was qualified yet rejected
o Was rejected but the employer kept looking
o An individual must prove:
o They are a member of a protected class
o Applied for a job they were qualified for, and the employer was seeking
applicants
o Not hired even though they were qualified for the position
o Position remained open and employer continued to receive applications.
o Disparate or Adverse Impact: Refers to a form of discrimination where employer's
policy seems neutral; but has an adverse impact on a certain group or characteristics
o Identified in Griggs vs. Duke Power Co. (1971) -- African-Americans were
affected in lower-paid labor positions because they received inferior education.
3.1: The Age Discrimination in Employment (ADEA) (1967):
• Applies to 20 or more employees
o Prevents discrimination against employees >40
o Specified age range of 40-70; other ranges were not covered at this time.
o Laws are still covered under Title VII (Civil Rights Act of 1964)
o Employees are entitled to back pay, front pay, and benefits (arrears).
o 1 example of upper age limits are rule.
o Commercial pilots are not able to fly planes over the age of 65 due to risk of health
conditions and being unable to perform their job duties.
3.2: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) (2009):
• Create government infrastructure projects such as highways, buildings, dams, and such;
attempt to find ways to re-employ many workers impacted by the Great Recession in 2007.
• Applied to individuals who experienced involuntary termination prior to May 31, 2010.
• Modified HIPAA privacy rules; applied HIPAA's security and privacy requirements to
business associates--organizations who have access or contact with private medical
information.
3.3: The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) (1986):
• Requires employers with group health insurance programs to offer terminating employees
the opportunity to continue their health plan coverage after they are no longer on the
payroll, or no longer qualify for benefits due to change in employment status.
• The length of time that an employee is eligible for coverage is determined by the type of
qualifying event.
o 18 months: Period of eligibility for an employee's reduction of hours or an employee's
termination.
o 29 months: Period of eligibility for the disablement of an employee.
o 36 months: Period of eligibility for a divorce/legal separation of an employed spouse.
• Covered employees are required to provide an initial COBRA notice within 90 days of the
date an employee/spouse is covered under the plan.
• 14 days: Notice of unavailability of continuation of coverage.
3.4: The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA) (1990):
• Applies to 20 or more employees
 o Common for employers to implement programs that were targeted towards older
employers due to their higher compensation potential.
o Congress took action to prevent such action against older employees
o Prohibits employer from the following actions
 Using the employee's age for discrimination in benefits
 Targeting older workers for hiring freezes and downsizing
 Requiring older workers to waive their rights without legal review with their
advisor.

4.1: Executive Order 11246-Affirmative Action (1965):

• Employment based affirmative action
• Implemented after Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Affirmative action plans from organizations that are contracted with the federal
government (women and minorities).
• OFCCP--Law enforcement agency that has responsibility over implementation of Executive
Order 11246
 Abide by Federal Acquisition Action
 Affirmative action for disabled persons and veterans
• Any organization can opt-out of the executive order compliance, but will cease receiving all
funding from the federal government.
• One common way for companies to improve community outreach and develop a new
generation of diverse employees is through an internship program.
4.2: The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) (1993):
• Passed to allow eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave
during a twelve-month period for specific Family and Medical reasons. Employers are
covered if they have 50+ employees, and employees if they have worked 1,250 hours in a
given year and located within 75 miles of their workplace.
• FMLA covers leave for the following reasons:
o Birth of child, adoption, or foster parent
o Serious health condition of spouse, child, or parent
o Qualifying exigency leave, or leave for active duty purposes.
o Military caregiver leave or care for a covered service member
 Employers are covered for up to 26 weeks in a 12 month period to care
for a covered service member.
• Employees can choose to take FMLA intermittently or in blocks of time for specific,
qualifying reasons approved by the employer.
• Spouses who work for the same employer must share leave time and must add up to
12 weeks for the reasons stated above.
• Employers also have the right to require employees to take unpaid FMLA leave
concurrent with and relevant paid leave, such as sick or PTO.
• Employers also have the right to maintain an employee's group health care coverage
while they are out on FMLA.
• Penalties of $110 can be assessed for failure to post these guidelines in the
workplace.
 • Military Caregiver Leave lasts for up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave of absence for
employees to care for family members due to a military-related injury or illness.
• "Light Duty Assignments": Does not count against an employee's FMLA leave
entitlement; employee's right to job restoration is held in abeyance during the light
duty period.
• REQUIRED WORKPLACE POSTING
• "Medical certification process" is part of the new provision.
4.3: The Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA) (1996):
• Put in place to ensure that large health group plans provide coverage for mental health
care in the same manner as physical health care such as surgical and medical benefits.
• Prevents an employer's group health plan from placing a lower lifetime limit on mental
health benefits.
• Act applies to employers with more than 50 employees so long as compliance within the
act will not increase the employer's cost by more than 1%.
4.4: The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) (2008):
• Amendment to the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996.
• Requires that plans offer both medical/surgical benefits and mental health/substance
abuse treatment benefits provide parity.
• Financial and treatment requirements must be the same for treatment of mental and
physical medial problems.
4.5: National Defense Authorization Act (2008):
• Origin of benefit provisions under FMLA for LOAs due to military reasons.
• Qualifying events include notice of deployment, return, and treatment for injuries
sustained while on deployment.
• The provision is for up to 26 weeks, which can be taken in 1-day increments or less if
treatment is required for a service-related injury.
4.6: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (2010):
• Created health insurance trading centers (American Health Benefit Exchanges and Small
Business Health Options Program) in each state where employees and the unemployed can
shop for health insurance coverage.
• Effective January 1, 2014, covered employers must either provide minimum health
insurance coverage to their full-time employees (50+) or face a fine of $2,000 per
employee.
• Businesses with less than 25 employees will receive a credit for 2 years.

5.1: The Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act (WARN) (1988):

• Requires that a minimum of 60 days' notice be given in advance of plant closings and mass
layoffs. Notice must be given to local government, state disclosed worker units, and
workers or their representatives.
• Applies to employers with 100+ full time employees who in the aggregate work at least
4,000 hours a week (not including OT).
• Plant closing: Temporary or permanent shutdown of an entire site or one or more facilities,
or operating units within a single site that results in an employment loss during any 30-day
period of 50 or more employees.
 • Mass layoff: Reduction in force during any 30-day period that results in an employment
loss at a single site for either 50+ full-time employees, if they make up at least 33% of the
workforce at the employment site, or 500 or more full-time employees.
• The burden of the WARN act is on the employer to articulate reasons that are legitimate
and not an attempt to thwart the intent of the act. The three exceptions are as follows:
o Faltering company
o Unforeseeable business circumstance
o Natural disaster
• Notice is not required in the following instances:
o Event of strikes or lockouts that are not intended to evade requirements of this law.
o Event the layoff will be less than 6 months.
o State and local governments are downsizing.
o Fewer than 50 people will be laid off or terminated from a single site.
o If 50 to 499 workers lose their job, and the number is less than 33% of the active
workforce at the single site.
6.1: The Civil Service Reform Act (1978):
• The Office of Personnel Management (OPM): Executive branch in the HR department;
handles all HR issues for agencies reporting to the President.
• The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB): Prohibiting consideration of marital status,
political activity, or political affiliation in dealing with federal civilian employees; created
the Office of Special Counsel and accepts, investigates, and resolves employee complaints.
• The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA): Agency that enforced federal civilian
employee rights to form unions and bargains with other agencies.
o Established behavior standards for union officers, which are enforced in OLM (Office
of Labor Management Standards)
6.2: The Congressional Accountability Act (1995):
• Requires Congress and its affiliated agencies to abide by 11 specific laws already applied to
other employers:
o ADA (1990)
o ADEA (1967)
o Employee Polygraph Protection Act (1988)
o Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute
o Rehabilitation Act of 1973
o CRA (Title VII) of 1964
o FLSA (1938)
o OSHA (1970)
o Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (1998)
o WARN (1989)
6.3: The False Claims Act (1863):
• Referred to as "Lincoln Law," it prohibits false transactions, inaccurate records, and selling
the government goods that are known to be defective.
• "Just because the boss says you should, will still be illegal."
6.4: The Homeland Security Act (2002):
 • Cabinet-level organization created in 2002 to consolidate security efforts related to
protecting the US geography. (ICE and E-Verify Reside here).
• System is intended to assist in rapid verification of Social Security Numbers and confirm
that the person attached to the SSN has a right to work in this country.
6.5: The Privacy Act (1974):
• Provides that federal government agencies must make known to the public their data
collection and storage activities, and must provide copies to the individual citizen when
requested:
o Exemptions include law enforcement, congressional investigations, census use,
"archival purposes," and other administrative purposes.
• The government is prohibited from releasing information to third parties without proper
authorization or court order.
6.6: The USA Patriot Act (2001):
• AKA Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to
Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act
• Passed immediately after 9/11; gives government the right to intercept wire, oral, and
electronic communications relating to terrorism, computer fraud, and abuse offenses.
Provides authorization for collecting agencies to share information they collect in interest
of law enforcement.

Employment Visas for Foreign Nationals

• There are two types of E Nonimmigrant Visas, E-1 Treaty Traders, and E-2 Treaty Investors
• E-1 Treaty Traders: Must be citizen of the treaty country, substantial trade, trade within the
treaty country; the individual must have executive, supervisory, or essential skills; intend to
depart the US when trading is completed.
• E-2 Treaty Investors: Must be a citizen of the treaty country and be invested personally in
the enterprise.
o Business must be a bona fide enterprise and not marginal.
o These individuals must have executive, supervisory, or essential skills, and they must
direct and develop the enterprise.
o Must depart the US when the investment is completed.
• H Visas are available to employers and employees for specialized talent or educational
requirements.
• H-1B Special Occupations and Fashion Models: Require a Bachelor's Degree or higher (or
it's equivalent). Job must be so complex that it can only performed by a person with a
degree. Fashion models also fall into this category.
• H-1C RN Working in a Health Professional Shortage Area: Requires a fill and unrestricted
nursing license in the country resided in; requires appropriate authorization from the US
State's Board of Nursing to practice.
o Requires passing the Commission on Graduates for Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS),
or have a full and unrestricted license.
• H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers: Employer must demonstrate that there are not
sufficient US workers who are willing, able, qualified, and available to perform temporary
seasonal work.
 o They must know the H-2A workers will not adversely affect wages and working
conditions of US employees.
• H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Workers: Employer must show that there are not enough
US workers who are willing, able, etc. to perform temporary work, not should it adversely
affect wages and working conditions of employed US workers.
o Employer must show the need for the prospective services of the worker is
temporary.
• H-3 Nonimmigrant Trainee: Employees must be trainees receiving training in any field of
endeavor, other than graduate medical education not available in their home country, or a
Special Education Exchange Visitor who will participate in a special education training
program focused on education of children with disabilities.
• L-1 Intra-Company Transferee: Allows organization to move an employee from one
qualifying country to the US for a managerial assignment, or requires special knowledge.
• L-1A Managers and Executives: Intracompany transferees coming to the US in a managerial
or executive capacity; maximum stay under an approved Visa is 7 years.
o They must have specialize knowledge of the employer's product, service, research,
equipment, etc. and it's application in international markets; or must possess an
advanced level of knowledge or expertise in the company's processes and
procedures.
o Maximum stay is 5 years.
• O-1 Alien of Extraordinary Ability in Arts, Science, Education, Business, Athletics:
Demonstrated level of expertise among the small percentage who have risen to the top in
their field.
• P Visa Categories:
o P-1A Individual Athletes or Athletic Teams
o P-1B Entertainment Groups
o P-1S Essential Support Needed for P-1A or P-1B
o P-2 Artist or Entertainer Under a Reciprocal Exchange Program
o P-2S Essential Support for P2
o P3 Artist or Entertainer under a Culturally Unique Program
o P-3S Essential Support for P3
• EB-Employment-Based Visas:
o EB-1 Alien of Extraordinary Ability: Employer must demonstrate alien has
extraordinary ability in science, arts, business, education, or athletics, that has been
recognized with national or international acclaim. Work performed in US must
continue in this capacity.
o EB-2 Alien of Extraordinary Ability: Classifications of persons that require advanced
degrees and persons of exceptional ability.
o EB-3 Skilled Workers: Requires professionals and even unskilled workers sponsored
by employers in the US.
o EB-4 Certain Special Immigrants: Broadcasters, ministers, employees or former US
employees of the government, Iraqi, Afghan interpreters, etc.
o EB-5 Immigrant Investors: People who will create new commercial enterprises in the
US that will provide job creation.
Functional Area 1 - HR Strategic Planning
• HR Strategic Planning: Involves activities necessary for developing, implementing, and
managing the strategic direction required to achieve organizational success to create value
for stakeholders.
• HR Professionals must utilize the organization's mission and vision as a focus for
determining where HR can support goals and sustain a competitive advantage.
The Role of Strategy
• The creation of strategic goals requires a vision of growth that is associated with
organization's mission, and includes the result of value for stakeholders.
• Strategy is the planning of long-range goals and actions to attain those goals.
• Theorist Henry Mintzberg: Believes that strategy emerges in response to environmental
threats and opportunities and cannot be planned rationally, because no one person can
foresee everything about the future.
• Michael Porter: Believes the gathering of data is the core source for setting and choosing
direction.
• Strategic management is required in the leadership of the organization to ensure that
functions in the organization are aligning their activities to help move the organization
towards its goals and strategic plans.
Requirements for Strategic Planning and Management
• Several of these processes begin with the extension of the annual operating budget into a
typical 5-year projection, but is quickly overlooked since they're assumed to have no
significant change in environmental, economic, and competitive conditions.
• Strategy creation concepts:
o Aligning Effort: Ensure all functions are aligned with the organization's mission and
goals.
o Controlling Drift: Ensure that an organization is not coasting along with past practices
and missing the boat, or becoming blindsided because of marketplace disruption or
industry with substitution.
o Focusing on Core Competencies: Knowing the organization's best qualities with it's
customer base, and focusing those efforts on those competencies.
o Systems Thinking: Inter-relations of internal and external factors, such as
stakeholders, industry forces, other influences in the organization.
o Using structure as a strategic level: Does the structure of the organization support the
strategy, or does it hamper because of current policies and expectations within the
organization?
o Using culture as a strategic level: Does the culture align itself with the intended
strategy?
Benefits of Strategy
• Helping everyone in the organization focus on the future with a written plan that contains
goals to further the organization's existence.
• Provides direction and intention on where the organization plans to use and spend its
resources.
• Helps maintain alignment of decision making and activities to ensure the support of
attaining the planned strategy.
 • Helps determine what resources are needed, and positive and negative outcomes for
suggested strategies.
Mistakes to Avoid
• Using the SWOT analysis and not taking shortcuts with the process of strategic planning.
• Getting too comfortable with the status quo.
• Lacking follow-through and alignment.
• Not challenging or accessing the potential risks is another mistake to avoid.
• Insufficient involvement or commitment from management.
• Lack of communication to the organization on what the strategy plan is, and what it means
to the employee and function.
Levels of Strategy
• Organizational Level: Involves a general vision of the future.
• Business unit level: Focuses on the "how" and "where" of the organization will focus to
create value for stakeholders.
• Operational Level: Focuses on the activities and actions the functions within the
organization will take to progress towards its vision.
Role of HR in Strategy
• HR's policies, programs, and processes will need to correlate, collaborate, and align with
the organization's business units.
• HR Professionals need to develop strategic planning skills such as scanning the
environment, formulating strategy, assessing risks, and setting SMART goals and objectives.
• HR's role includes building bridges between internal and external stakeholders, viewing
differing perspectives, and seeking resolutions.
Role of Value in Strategy
• The basic premise with strategic planning and management is to lead activities that yield a
great value.
o 1st step: Understanding how an organization creates value with its mission.
Value Chain
• Michael Porter is also responsible for the value chain, which describes the process by which
a business receives materials, and then adds value to the materials through processes that
create their finished product or service.
• The end goal of the value chain analysis is top create the maximum value for the least
possible cost, which creates the organization's competitive advantage.
• Primary activities contribute directly to the value that is created for the customer.
• HR administrative functions along with finance and IT, fall into the secondary activities
area.
• HR professionals are expected to know which activities in the organization are considered
central to its mission, reflecting its core activities, and which ones are the most profitable
activities, or ones that could be profitably outsourced.
Stakeholder Concept.
• R. Edward Freeman offered the stakeholder concept in the 1980s as another perspective to
the shareholder view of a corporation.
o His concept recognizes the different types of value an organization creates.
HR's Role In Defining and Creating Value
 • Knowing core competencies of its talent, the marketplace where talent is needed, and legal
environment in which the organization employs its workforce.
The Strategic Planning Process
• The strategic planning process will always involve the four basic stages and continually
change with the conditions for the organization.
o Formulation of the Strategy, gathering critical and necessary data.
o Development of the strategy, which considers the competitive advantage and
markets it competes in.
o Implementation stage, creating the specific objectives and initiatives that produce
outcomes associated with the goals.
o Evaluation stage, final stage where metrics and achievements are accessed and
reported upon to stakeholders.
Strategy Formulation
• Strategy formulation is the process by which an organization chooses the most appropriate
courses of action to achieve its defined goals.
• Major part in strategic planning is process of gathering data. This should be performed
prior to creation of the strategic plan.
• "What should we be tracking or monitoring?" Information is the key to business success.
Environmental Scanning
• One technique for sorting out the important from the unimportant is the PESTEL analysis.
o P: Political
o E: Economic
o S: Social
o T: Technological
o E: Environmental
o L: Legal
• Political factors: How and to what degree a government intervenes in the economy
(legislation, foreign trade policy, labor laws, etc.)
• Economic factors: Economic growth, interest and exchange rates, inflation, disposable
income, etc.
o Microeconomics: All about the way people spend their income
o Macroeconomics: Management of demand in any given economy.
• Social factors: AKA sociocultural factors. Factors include population growth, age
distribution, health consciousness, career attitudes, and so on.
• Technological Factors: New ways of producing and distributing goods and services, and
new ways to communicate to target markets.
• Environmental Factors: Issues came to the forefront about 15 years ago, and became
prevalent due to increase of scarcity in raw materials, pollution targets, doing business as
an ethical and sustainable company, and carbon footprint targets set by governments.
• Legal Factors: OSHA, EEO, advertising standards, consumer rights and laws, product
labeling, and product safety.
• After completion of the PESTEL analysis, it is time to perform the SWOT Analysis.

SWOT Analysis
 • Strengths: What are the strengths of your HR organization? What do you do well and want
to continue doing into the future?
• Weaknesses: Areas that you know need improvement.
• Opportunities: Merger or acquisition offers opportunities to examine all HR systems in both
organizations and determine which will serve the new employer group best in the future.
• Threats: Challenges we face as HR professionals.
Industry Analysis
• Industry Analysis is a tool that facilitates a company's understanding of it's position relative
to other companies that produce similar products or services.
• Enables HR professionals to identify threats and opportunities facing their business, and
focus on their resources on developing unique capabilities that could lead to a competitive
advantage.
• Industry Lifecycle (4 Stages):
o Introduction: Beginning of the organization; policies and systems are being created as
they are needed.
o Growth: Growth is influenced by all the factors explores in the SWOT and PESTEL
analysis.
o Maturity: When the organization is comfortable with its size, influence, and income.
Decline: Phase when systems have gotten surpassed by technological advances and
products and services have become passé.
• Porter's Five Forces: Pressures consist of forces close to a company that affect its ability to
serve its customers and make a profit.
o Threat of New Entrants: When a company does so well that their success attracts new
competitors who want to get in on that success, the competition can drive down
profits.
o Threat of Substitutes: "knock off" Brands; using different products and services to
address the same need that the original product or device solved.
o Bargaining Power of Customers: When customer orders are large, they can force the
lowering of prices.
o Bargaining Power of Suppliers: If there are few options for sourcing component parts,
raw materials, or other supplies, the supplier can have a strong influence on the cost
of end products.
o Industry Rivalry: Industry competitors greatly influence our ability to succeed in the
marketplace.
Strategic Investment Decisions
• Investments should be evaluated based on the period it takes to reclaim the investment,
what the payback amount will be, and what impact there will be on cash flow.
Growth Share Matrix
• Sometimes called the Boston box or Boston matrix. X-Axis represents the relative market
share, and the Y-Axis is market growth.
• Investment dogs: When market growth and market share are low.
The GE-McKinsey Nine-Box Matrix
• The Nine-Box Matrix offers a systematic approach for the decentralized corporation to
determine where best to invest in its cash.
Defining Mission, Vision, and Values
• Mission: Organization's reason for existence, describes the organization's purpose, and it's
overall intention,
o Supports the vision and serves to communicate purpose and direction to employees ,
customers, vendors, and other stakeholders.
o What is our organization's purpose?
o Why does our organization exist?
• Vision: Looks forward and created a mental image of the ideal state the organization wants
to achieve.
o What problem are we seeking to solve?
o Where are we headed?
o If we achieved all strategic goals, what would we look like 10 years from now?
• Values: Core principles that guide and direct the organization and its culture.
o What values are unique to our organization?
o What values should guide the operations of our company?
o What conduct should our employees uphold?
Articulating the HR Mission, Vision, and Values
• HR professionals are responsible for the following:
o Creating the HR Mission, vision, and value statements
o Communicating these statements to senior executives and the general employee
body in terms that can be well understood.
• What will be the impact on me [the executive or employee]?
• Why should I care about the role of HR in the organization?
• How will this make my job easier?
Setting Goals
• Setting HR goals within the construct of articulated mission, vision, and values statements
is the next step.
• Using the SMART method will ensure that the goals created stand a chance of being
achieved.
o Specific: Know exactly what you want to accomplish. Goals must be well-defined,
clear, and unambiguous.
o Measurable: Have a yardstick to measure the specific intention.
o Attainable: Make the goal achievable.
o Realistic: Make the goal realistic to achieve in the timeframe and relevant to align
with the organization's strategic plan.
o Timely: Specify whether this goal has an implementation date.
• Composing goals with the SMART outline and using action verbs such as identify, describe,
create, implement, and define will guide the objective of the goal's direction.
Aligning HR Goals and Objectives
• The final step in the process is to check HR goals being aligned with the organizational goals
and objectives.
Developing Strategy
• Strategy: Statement of "how" we are going to get things done, and less specific than an
action plan.
Developing Strategies That Fit
• A good strategy will consider the existing barriers and resources; and stay within the overall
vision, mission, and objectives of the initiative.
• An initiative will use many different strategies such as providing information, enhancing
support, removing barriers, providing resources, etc. to achieve its goal .
• Objectives outline the aims of an initiative, whereas strategies suggest paths to take on the
road to success.
Business Strategy: How We Will Compete
• Each enterprise must assess for itself the missions and strategies needed to accomplish its
goal.
Creating Competitive Advantage
• There are 6 ways to differentiate your organization within a competitive marketplace,
regardless of where in the world you are located.
o Product differentiation: Features, performance, efficacy, conformance, durability,
reliability, and warranty.
o Service differentiation: Ordering ease, delivery, installation, customer training,
customer consulting, other miscellaneous services.
o Channel differentiation: Coverage, expertise, performance.
o Relationship differentiation: Competence, courtesy, reliability, credibility,
responsiveness, communication.
o Reputation/image differentiation: Perception, Communication, advertising
o Price differentiation: Customer, quantity, segment
Porter's Competitive Strategies
• (1985)- Porter suggested 4 primary competitive strategies that organizations can rely on
when plotting their future business course.
o Cost Leadership
o Differentiation
o Focus
• Cost Leadership
o Profits can be increased by reducing costs while maintaining prices at industry
average.
o Market share can be increased by both reducing costs and lowering prices, taking
sales away from competitors.
• Differentiation
o Differentiation involves making your products or services different or more attractive
than your competitors.
o Being a full service HR department means you "hold the hand of employees" as they
ask for help with benefits enrollment, discrimination complaint processing, and
training enrollment.
o BEWARE OF PROMISES YOU CAN'T KEEP AS A COMPANY!
• Focus
o Making something that no one else does that serves a specific requirement is one
way to use focus as a strategy.
Impact of Business Strategies on HR Strategy
 • There are 10 steps a strategy can must make an impact on the overall business strategy:
1. Understand your organization's business- spend time talking with different
departments in the organization.
2. Share responsibility for business goals and plans- The HR goals should be aligned with
overall business goals.
3. Know the HR business thoroughly- Your customers rely on you for correct and
insightful information and advice.
4. Run your department like a business- Your goals must contribute to the
accomplishment of the overall business objectives.
5. Measure outcomes and goal achievements, not work processes- Employee and
executive surveys are often used to identify how these people see HR performance.
6. Remember the people in human resources.
7. Express thoughtful opinions backed by data and study. Learn everything you can so
you have opinions and so your opinions are backed up with data.
8. Harness the benefits of technology- Provide better customer service and free time for
dreaming up new value-added strategies.
9. Recommend programs for people who continually improve the business.
10. Learn and grow every day through every possible method.
Corporate Strategy: Where We Will Compete
• Growth Strategy Options
oMarket Penetration: Increasing market share through options such as lowering prices.
oMarket expansion: Developing new markets where current products and services can
be sold.
o Product expansion: Increasing the number of products or product features
o Diversification strategies: Selling new products to new markets.
o Acquisition strategies: Purchasing another organization to expand product line or
markets.
Managing Growth Options
• HR can contribute to those research efforts through identification of employee benefit
packages and their costs.
Talent Acquisition: Part I
Sunday, February 9, 2020
7:23 PM
Functional Area 2-Talent Acquisition
• Talent Acquisition encompasses the activities involved in building and maintaining a
workforce that meets the needs of the organization.
• TA involves all the HR strategies and processes involved in attracting, recruiting, and
selecting talent that has the KSAs needed in the workforce to meet the organization's
needs.
Organizational Staffing Requirements
• Staffing is getting the right ones into the right jobs.
Staffing Challenges
• Dealing with staffing challenges effectively is the measure of a skilled HR manager.
 • Changing Demographics: housing and cost of living become too expensive and commute
times are too great; workforce demographics may shift.
• Lack of Skilled Labor
• Government and Regulatory Barriers to Hiring: When an employee is first hired, it becomes
subject to more than 50 federal laws that require compliance.
• Brain Drain:
• Availability of Reliable Data: Workforce planning and strategic staffing initiatives are
problematic when there is a lack of current, reliable data.
• Economic Cycles
• Business Lifecycles: Recruiting and retention strategies will necessarily change as business
moves through the four stages of existence.
• PEST factors: PEST factors must be considered when conducting an environmental scan,
strategic planning, or being engaged in other forecasting efforts.
Employee Lifecycles
• Recruitment & Selection: finding the best fit between a job an employee
• Onboarding and orientation: Gaining information and tools necessary to succeed in the role
and getting acclimated to the organization's culture.
• Training & Development: Promoting engagement and retention by developing an
employee's skills and commitment.
• Performance Management: Working with employees helping them achieve their goals and
objectives, priming them to become a stronger employee/
• Transition: Best match of an employee's capabilities with an organization's needs through
transfer, promotion, demotion, resignation, and retirement.
Technology Shifts
• Social media is the primary source of job candidates, as compared to the newspaper ads of
yesterday.
Cherry Picking: Pressure on Salary Levels
• Offering more money beyond the maximum pay range could cause an organization to
ensue a "freeze" on the new hire's pay level, despite the employee's acceptance on the pay
level.
• Employee discontent and discouragement can ensue because of this short-term benefit.
Creating a Job vs. Hiring for Work
• Common practice is to have a job opening identified, and then seek candidates for that job
with the intent to hire the best qualified out of the batch.
Job Analysis and Job Documentation
• Job Description: Documenting results from establishing job content and determining how
the jobs interacts with other jobs.
Job Analysis
• Job Analysis: Determining the level of responsibility embedded in the job and how it
impacts the overall organization.
• Job analysis should include the amount of physical or mental conditions under which the
job operates.
Job Documentation
 • Job documentation are written descriptions of the key elements of a job, its working
conditions, and its mental and physical demands.
Job Descriptions
• Elements for a Job Description
o Administrative
o Summary of Job Content
 Essential job functions: Brief description of specific tasks, duties, and
responsibilities
 Mental and Educational Requirements: Formal education, training,
certifications, etc.
 Skill Requirements: Typing, welding, swimming, etc.
 Physical factors: Hearing, seeing, touching, operating, standing, bending,
squatting, etc.
 Environmental factors: Outside weather conditions, inside workplace
conditions, workspace, hazardous materials, etc.
 Hours: Number of 8-hour shifts per week, overtime, and lunch/break
requirements.
 Unplanned activities: Duties or tasks that could come up, interactions, and
support of other jobs.
 Approvals: Reviews and approvals of management people authorized to design
job content.
• Job Descriptions in the Global Environment
o Having job content consistency may be helpful in the outreach and recruiting efforts
in an organization.
• Job Specifications
o Job Specification: states the minimum qualifications required for performing that job.
 What education is required?
 What physical and mental abilities are a must?
 What experience is essential?
Writing and Updating Job Descriptions and Job Specifications
• It is the responsibility of the supervisor and/or manager to develop and maintain accurate
job descriptions and job specifications.
• In larger organizations, it is the HR shop that is responsible for evaluating, rating, and
assigning pay levels to job descriptions and compensation classifications as appropriate.
• Annual reviews are mandated for all federal contractors who are required to maintain
affirmative action plans for the disabled.
• Essential tasks, duties, and responsibilities are considered to determine whether a job
accommodation can be made, or if circumstances call for it.
• Accurate job specifications are important when a job opening occurs since the hiring
manager usually needs to move quickly on the recruitment and hiring process.
Employment Categories
• Employment Categories: The two most categorized are from the FLSA:
o Nonexempt: Employees are people whose job content is not exempt from the
requirements for minimum wage and overtime requirements.
 o Exempt: Employees are people whose job content does not require overtime
payment.
• Company policy classifications:
o Regular full-time employees: Scheduled to work the company's full time schedule;
usually eligible for benefit programs depending on eligibility conditions.
o Regular part-time workers: Regularly scheduled to work less than the company's full-
time schedule; may be eligible for some company programs.
o Temporary full-time employees: Interim workers assigned to specific projects or hired
for a limited duration; may or may not be offered benefits.
o Temporary part-time employees: Hired to temporary supplement the workforce, or
assist with a company project. Scheduled to work less than full-time for a limited
duration; and are usually not eligible for company benefits.
o On-Call employees: Scheduled as need for a non-specified time; usually no eligibility
for company benefit programs.
o Interns: May be college or university students, high school students, or post-graduate
adults who perform work for a specified period.
Sourcing and Recruiting
• Sourcer:
o Finds the passive candidates
o Creates interest and drives talent to the organization; requires research (org charts,
job descriptions, social media profiles).
o Engages with candidates through social media, sending emails, or even via phone.
• Recruiter:
o Manages the relationships, guiding the candidates and the hiring manager through
the screening, selection, and hiring process (by means of meetings, phone calls, and
interviews).
o Requires administrative work: Posting jobs, reviewing application submissions,
coordinating schedules, uploading documents, extending offers- all until the job
opening has been filled.
Sourcing and Recruiting in Diverse Markets
• There is a linear relationship between racial and ethnic diversity and better financial
performance.
Recruiting Methods
• Social media is now the go-to source to find external candidates.
Internal Recruiting
• This can be done via sending an email blast to employees regarding the job announcement,
posting the job opening on an employee bulletin board, and even on the organization's
intranet.
• It could be better to give current employees the opportunity to apply for the position,
especially if it means a promotion, it even means costing the organization less than
recruiting someone externally.
External Recruiting
• Job Boards: Monster, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, etc.
• Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
 • Website: Organization's website
• Referrals: Employee referrals, including from clients, customers, vendors, and the general
public.
Other Recruiting Strategies
• Employment and temporary help agencies assist in employers and employees test-driving
with each other's objective to see if it is a good match for the employer's culture.
Employment Branding
• Employment Brand: Market perception of what it is like to work for an organization; relies
heavily on culture, along with current and former employee testimonials about experience
on the payroll.
Robust Sourcing Strategy
• Sourcing: The Art of seeking candidates before they apply for a job.
• A robust strategy in sourcing includes an active presence in the employment market
looking for organizations, internet sites, and social media accounts that represent the type
of individual knowledge, skills, and abilities you believe required now or in the future.
Recruiting Effectiveness
• Establishing and maintaining a recruitment program requires investment of an internal
staff of people dedicated to that activity or time and effort of consulting support that will
offer the same services.
Measurers of Recruitment Effectiveness
• Speed and efficiency
o Time between opening the requisition and presenting a qualified candidate slate
o Time for feedback from hiring manager to recruiter
o Requisition aging
• Quality metrics
o Number of candidates selected for interview
o Interview to offer ratio

Talent Acquisition: Part II

Monday, February 10, 2020
4:34 PM
HR Metrics
• In addition to recruiting measurements, the quality of new hires can be measured (based
on job performance ratings, percentage of new hires promoted within a year, and annual
retention rates), and turnover costs.
• Be advised to choose metrics to report on something that has significance in the recruiting
program.
Peoplepower Reporting
• This can add value if you're reporting demographics of your workforce of various groups for
a diversity programs.
• Headcount: Number of people on payroll, candidate pools, recruiting source, etc.
• Groups and Subgroups: When counting subgroups such as department, unit, work location,
be sure to "do" something with information computed, and will provide the most valuable
feedback.
 • Demographics: Race, gender, disability, veteran status , and national origin are affinity
groups that can provide insight into the nature of the workforce. There may be reporting
requirements as part of your organization's affirmative action compliance.
Cost of Hire/Cost Per Hire
• Cost of Hire: Uses external and internal costs to determine overall cost per person hired
during any given time period.
o External Costs + Internal Costs / Total Number of Hires in a Time Period
o External costs are expenses such as external agency fees, advertising costs, job fair
costs, travel costs, and other similar expenses.
o Internal costs are expenses that can include expenses such as salary and benefits of
the recruiting team, and fixed costs such as physical infrastructure.
• Cost Per Hire Internal/Comparable
o This formula only uses internal costs in the numerator.
• Days to Fill
o Days to Fill: From the time a requisition is posted until the employment offer has
been made.
• Attrition
o Number of employees leaving before 1 year anniversary
o Number of employees leaving before 5 year anniversary
o Number of employees leaving total
o Number of employees leaving voluntarily (Within a job or group)
o Number of employees leaving involuntarily (within a job or group)
Recruitment Cost and Yield Ratios
• Recruiting Cost Ratio
o ((External Costs) + (Internal Costs)) / (Total First Year Compensation of Hires in Time
Period) X 100
o The RCR indicates how much you spent recruiting for every dollar of first-year
compensation paid to the new hires.
o The lower the percentage, the more efficient the result.
• Recruitment Yield Ratio
o Can be calculated at each step at the recruiting and hiring process to determine how
successful you are at each stage of the process.
RYR = Number of Hires / Number of Interviews
o The greater the percentage, the better.
• Workforce Analytics
Leveraging Technology in Sourcing and Recruiting Candidates
• Excel spreadsheets can provide HR Professionals with periodic analytic results for metrics
such as number of requisitions per month, time between requisition and job offer, and cost
of hiring at each occupational level.
• Internet Recruiting
• Social Media
Selection
• The hiring manager is responsible for selecting the most qualified candidate for the
position.
Talent Selection Process
• Sometimes, it is helpful to use a matrix constructed of the job qualifications in the selection
process.
Screening
• Screening: Process of presorting job candidates to determine who meets the minimum
eligibility requirements of the job opening.
• The first pass in screening should be who meets the job qualifications about the job
posting.
• Usually the first part of the screening process is a telephone (or video conference)
interview, followed by an in-person interview by the HR and/or hiring manager.
Tracking Applicants
• If you are a federal contractor, it's required to keep and maintain specific applicant-tracking
data points, and can be used to analyze disparity in the selection process.
• EEOC or OFCCP would be conducting a similar analysis if a complaint is filed with either or
both agencies. It is OK to self-identify on job applications by the following categories:
o Race/ethnicity
o Gender
• Employers are not required to have this information for job applicants.
Application Forms
• Though not required by any federal law, as many as 60% of all job applications have some
exaggerations or false information in them.
Resumes & Curricula Vitae
• These are documents prepared by an individual to describe educational and employment
history.
• Resumes are generally used with employers, and CVs are more prominent amongst the
education industry.
• Do not generally contain compensation information, gaps in employment, or contact
information for reference checking.
• Warning Signs:
o Foreign jobs without career progression, low pay, or exact job requirements.
o Jobs at companies that have gone out of business (more common nowadays)
o Too many jobs with supervisor that has no forwarding address
o Jobs at companies whose line of business is normal line of work, but work performed
was under a supervisor that is long-gone, and specifically has the same requirements
you are looking for.
o Experiences so long ago that the references would have moved on, retired, or passed.
o Self-employment with more infrastructure than a small self-run company would
provide.
o "Volunteer" experience for a company that would not entertain such an agreement.
o Volunteer experience for an extended period of time that would require some self-
support on the applicant's behalf.
o Job at a company that has since been merged, and can't find record of the existing
position.
o Dates of employment that start and end on exact starts of months or years.
 • Mark all suspects in a follow-up, perhaps in an interview with an applicant.
Interviewing
• Interviews are conducted for HR professionals/hiring managers to get more information
from an applicant and impart information to them about your organization.
• Interviews can be conducted face to face, on the telephone, or by video conference.
• As of late, it can take more than more than one interview before a selection decision is
made.
• TYPES OF INTERVIEWS:
o Structured Interview: An interviewer asks every applicant the same questions, along
with follow-up probes that may be different depending on the initial response. Makes
it possible to comparatively measure relative job-based attributes.
o Unstructured Interview: Follow threads of information as it is revealed. It's the
interviewers responsibility to distinguish information from this type of discussion.
o Behavioral Interview: Interviewer focuses on how the applicant previously handled
actual situations. This way, the interviewer can gauge the KSAs and other personal
characteristics identified as essential to the success of the role. Past performance is
the best predictor of future performance
o (USE THE STAR METHOD)
 Description of the Situation or Task
 Action Taken
 Result or Outcome
o Competency-Based Interview: Each question probes as a specific skill or competency,
and candidates are asked about their behavior in certain circumstances, and to
explain how it happened in a real-life example.
o Group Interview: Occur when multiple job candidates are interviewed by more than
one interviewer at the same time. Used in specific situations where several
candidates are being considered for the same job in which duties are limited and
clearly defined.
 Fishbowl interview: Brings multiple candidates together to work with each other
in an actual group activity or exercise. (in-basket exercise)
 Team Interview: Involves a group of interviewers with a perspective of the
actual interactions associated with the job. (like a 360 exercise)
 Panel Interview: Questions are distributed among a group of interviews,
typically those most qualified in a particular area.
o Stress Interview: Interview creates an aggressive posture deliberately to see how the
candidate reacts to stressful situations; usually more common in law enforcement
and air traffic control positions.
• Guidelines for Interviews:
o Directly observe certain aspects of applicant's behavior, such as ability to
communicate, alertness, self-confidence, etc.
o Obtain additional information regarding the applicant's education, work experience,
community activities (relevant), and any applicable information that can supplement
or fill gaps on written application materials.
 o Identify and assess the extent of the applicants KSAs or competencies by inquiring
about past performance and achievements.
o Preview job and organization expectations of employees, and what employees can
expect in return.
o Identify any needs for accommodations that might be required of the applicant with a
disability to perform essential job functions of the position.
o Promote a good public image of the institution.
o SEE TABLE 4-7: Questions You Can and Can't Ask in an Employment Interview
Interview Biases
• Hiring managers who interview may inadvertently create EEO problems or make ill-faced
selection choices without the proper training and guidance from HR:
o Stereotyping: Forming a generalized opinion on how persons of a particular gender,
religion, or race may think, act, feel, or respond.
o Inconsistency in questioning: Involves asking different questions of different
candidates.
o First-impression error: Occurs when the interviewer makes a snap judgement and
allows first impression (positive or negative) cloud the entire interview.
o Negative emphasis: Rejecting a candidate based on a small amount of negative
information.
o Halo/horn effect: Interviewer allows one strong point that they value to overshadow
all other information.
o Non-verbal bias: Undue emphasis placed on non-verbal cues unrelated to job
performance.
o Contrast effect: Strong candidate has interviewed after a weak candidate,
"Strengthening" their skill set and appearing more qualified.
o Similar-to-me error: Selects candidates based on personal characteristics they share,
rather than job-related criteria.
o Cultural noise: When a candidate provides information that's "politically correct"
rather than being factual.
Assessing and Evaluating
• Assessing candidates and evaluating their assessment test is helpful in screening to ensure
the best qualified for the job position is forwarded on for hiring manager's consideration.
o Assessment Methods:
 Personality Methods: tests are self-reporting, and can include behavioral
assessments.
 Ability Tests: Have high reliability, but risk disparity.
 Performance tests and work samples: Asked to perform one or more tasks
required by the job opening.
 Integrity Tests: Designed to assess applicant's tendency to be honest,
trustworthy, and dependable.
 Structured Interview: Ensure each interview subject is presented with same
questions in the exact order.
o Discretionary Assessment Methods:
 Person's match to the organization
  Personal motivation level
 Behaviors complementary to organizational personality.
o Contingent Assessment Methods: Job offers can be made contingent upon the
applicant's succession in an assessment exercise.
• Cross-Cultural Assessment Tools: Self assessment tool that can be used extensively in
training, consulting, and program evaluation, as well as employment screening. Designed
to test applicants in different cultures.
o Criteria for Selecting and Evaluating Selection Methods
 Validity
 Adverse Impact
 Cost
 Applicant Reactions
o Establishing Reliability
 Interrater or interobserver reliability
 Test-retest reliability
o Establishing Validity: Employment selection device can be a written or oral test, job
interview, assessment center participation, or job skill demonstration requirement.
Regulations established by EEOC and are known as the Uniform Guidelines on
Employee Selection Procedures (1978)
 Construct Validity: Extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure.
 Content validity: Extent to which a test measures all facets of a job
 Test-retest or stability: Extent to which a test produces stable and reliable
results, and they remain consistent from test to retest.
o Establishing Equity: Determination that employment tests treat everyone equally,
regardless of their personal group membership. (Race, gender, age, pregnancy,
mental/physical disability, national origin, veteran status, religion, sexual orientation,
and additional state-protected groupings.
o Establishing Cost-Effectiveness: Relationship between the cost to develop and
administer a test and the benefit derived by it.
• Background Investigations and Reference Checks
o Job offers are often conditioned upon successful completion of background checks,
reference checks, and even credit checks. (some instances, a background check
and/or drug screen).
o Considering conviction records has a disparate impact on Black/Latinx ethnic groups.
o EEOC has issued guidelines on consideration of conviction records due to the
disparate impact.
o International Background Checks: Only conducted if a candidate has lived abroad or if
the company has facilities abroad.
o Employment, Education, and Reference Checks: Verification calls should be made to
the organizations on the resume or job application to confirm the accuracy of the
claims.
Select and Offer
• Once all screening is completed and the best candidate has been selected, a job offer
should be made.
• Decision Process: There are several steps in the employment decision process
1. Summarize Information- Summary sheet or matrix is helpful when comparing key
points about each finalist.
2. ID and Rank candidates- Using a tool such as the candidate selection chart, it is
possible to summarize and rank each candidate against the others.
3. Collect Additional Information- Can include candidate's willingness to accept standard
benefit package, verification of a professional license, or a pending certification.
4. Make an offer- Offer can be made verbally or in writing (the preferred method).
• Contingent Job Offer: Can be made contingent upon any number of conditions:
o Legal right to work in the United States
o Verification of educational degrees
o Verification of professional licensing
o Confirmation of certification for the job duties
o Receipt of national security clearance
• Employment Offer
o Employment offers should include the following:
 Start date
 Wage or salary (weekly or monthly amount)
 Benefits
 Job Title
 Work Location
 Name of Supervisor
 "Employment-at-will"
o A phone call is the first step in making the job offer to ensure the candidate is
interested, followed by a written offer.
o Employment offers are not considered completed until the signed acceptance is
received and any contingency is met.
• Employment Contract
o Can be expressed in an oral or written fashion, and can be created inadvertently if the
employer isn't careful.
• Handing Nonselected Candidates
o Best HR Practices suggest it is courteous to notify each individual who did not receive
a job offer.
• Special Considerations: Reasonable Accommodation
o According to the US DOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), a
reasonable accommodation is any change in the work environment or in the way
things are usually done that enables an individual with a disability to participate in the
application process, to perform the essential functions of the job, or to enjoy equal
benefits and privileges of employment that are available to individuals without
disabilities.
o Applicants must make their requests for reasonable accommodation in writing,
expressing how the accommodation will help them accomplish the duties of the job
or application process.
 o Employer is obligated to review the request, while still permitting the applicant or
employee to accomplish the tasks involved in the job or application process.
o Employers are responsible for notifying the employee if they cannot accept the
reasonable accommodation process.
Job Preview
• A job preview is a way for candidates to see how the job is performed. It can be done in
several different ways:
o Video Preview
o Simulation
o Shadowing
• Characteristics of Realistic Job Previews
o Job previews should include an honest picture of job content, from required skills and
abilities, to required physical and mental abilities. This will give the candidate an
opportunity to accept or not accept your invitation to go further in the process.
• Benefits of a Job Preview
o Candidates get to experience seeing incumbents working on the tasks, having a
chance of asking questions, and even doing parts of the job to gain exposure to how it
feels to do that work.
o The employer also gets a chance to observe each candidate in the working
environment and judge their reactions to the work's demands.
Orientation and Onboarding
• These two activities set the tone for the balance of the employee's line of the job with this
employer.
• The chance for retention increases with getting off on the right foot with an employee.
• It is a common belief that the first 90 days of a worker's experience on a new job will
determine how the relationship goes for the balance of their employment.
• A strong orientation program will include the following:
o Welcome by the CEO/Senior Executive: Shows a new hire that senior management
cares about employees; anything otherwise sends a strong message
o Discussion about culture: "Operations of the organization." What does the employer
value?
 What image does the employer want to project?
 What are expectations of ethics?
o Enrollment in Benefits programs
 Completion of payroll tax forms
 Benefit enrollment forms
 Self-identification forms for race, sex, disability, and even veteran status.
o Tour of common employee areas
 Cafeterias, breakrooms, location for labor law compliance posters, and
restrooms
o Safety Equipment and emergency exits
 Includes emergency breathing apparatuses, first-aid stations, or other
important safety points of interest.
o Introduction to co-workers and supervisors
  Guide employees to their new work locations and introduce them to their new
co-workers and supervisors. Have someone designated to explain where to get
office supplies, computer terminals, and whom to ask when questions come up.
• Onboarding
o Onboarding is the process of integrating an employee to the organization and its
culture, along with gathering tools and information needed to be a successful in the
position.
o Onboarding should last at least 1 year for an employee to ensure a smooth transition
into the position/organization, and high retention.
• Getting Started with the Onboarding Process
o Process of onboarding new employees can be critical in ensuring recently hired talent
will be productive and happy workers.
o Orientation involves paperwork and routine tasks to place new hires in the
organization's payroll and organization chart. Onboarding is more comprehensive and
includes a process involving management and other employees, and usually lasts up
to a year.
o An effective onboarding program usually assimilates the following:
 What impression do you want new hires to walk away with at the end of the
first day? First month? First quarter? First year?
 What do you new employees need to know about the culture and work
environment?
 What role will HR play in the process? Direct managers? Co-workers?
 What kind of expectations, especially behavioral, do you want to set for new
employees?
 Who will be the new employee's sponsor? (Usually line of command)
 How will you gather feedback on the program and measure its success?
o HR professionals and upper management can devise a plan of action to help new
employees quickly assimilate new policies and workflow, while getting acquainted
with the organization's culture.
Employee Engagement & Retention: Part I
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
7:25 PM
Employee Engagement & Retention
• Employee Engagement and Retention refers to activities aimed at retaining at high-
performing talent, solidifying and improving the relationship between the employees and
the organization, creating a thriving and energized workforce, and developing effective
strategies to address appropriate performance expectations from employees at all levels.
Understanding Employee Engagement
• Employee Engagement recognizes certain characteristics that contribute behaviors that will
positively influence employee job performance.
• Engagement is the degree to which employees are psychologically invested in the
organization to contribute to it's success.
• Three types of professional HR engagement:
 o Trait Engagement: Personality-based elements that make an individual inclined to be
involved, natural curiosity, and an interest in addressing and solving problems.
o Stage Engagement: Influence of the workplace environment on an individual's
inclination to become involved. (Organizational interventions)
o Behavioral Engagement: Effect of individual effort that creates the satisfaction from a
job well done.
Employee Engagement Levels
• U.S. employees are typically less engaged than employers expect to hope for.
Benefits of Employee Engagement
• Engaged employees: Employees who work with a passion and feel a profound connection
to their company.
• Not engaged employees: "Checked out," "Sleepwalking," put in time into their work, but no
energy or passion.
• Active disengaged employees: Employees are just unhappy and are busy acting out their
unhappiness.
Drivers and Role of Organizational Culture in Engagement
• Organizational culture is a system of shared beliefs, shared assumptions, and values that
govern how people behave in organizations. An organization's ultimate goal is to align it's
culture and strategy.
Global Engagement Drivers
• Four drivers of engagement from an international perspective:
o The work itself and development opportunities the work provides.
o Stability and confidence placed in an organization's leadership.
o Rewards and recognition
o Upward and downward flow of communications
• Drivers of employee engagement vary from country to country, based on individual
cultures (personal feedback and control) and collectivist cultures (group feedback and
collective control).
Effective Management and Employee Engagement
• Management's behavior is critical to employee engagement and to an employee's well-
being.
• There is a link between employee engagement and leadership practices that encourage
and support employee performance, rather than dictate employee performance.
• 3 leadership practices that encourage and support employee performance:
o Transformational Leadership: The leader is charged with identifying need change,
creating a vision to guide change through inspiration, and executive in tandem with
committed members of the group.
o Authentic leadership: Emphasizes building the leader's legitimacy through honest
relationships with followers who value their input, which is also built on an ethical
foundation.
o Supportive Leadership: Path-goal theory (based on specifying a leader's style or
behavior that best fits the employee and the work environment). Supportive leaders
attempt to reduce employee stress and frustration in the workplace.
Challenges to Employee Engagement
 • External factors such as global competition, economic condition, continuous innovation,
and new technology are all possible factors as challenges to employee engagement.
• Technology in the form of internet and mobile communications creates grey areas in terms
of when work time ends and nonwork time begins.
Assessing Employee Engagement
• Employee engagement is the level of personal investment an employee has in his or her
work.
Gathering Information About Employee Engagement
• Employee surveys and focus groups are two effective methods to measure employee
engagement.
Employee Surveys
• Employee surveys are the most frequently used device on gathering information about
employee engagement.
• Can be used to work on issues in the organization.
Benefits of Conducting Employee Surveys
• Reasonable in cost, can be done quickly, and provide insight into thoughts of employees.
• Survey questions (look at project from CDCR on Exit Survey)
Developing Surveys
1. Identify goals you want to meet as a first step to begin a survey project.
2. Identify population you want to invite to participate in the survey.
3. Determine whether or not you want to build and implement the survey internally, or hire
an outside vendor to build and implement the survey for you.
4. Construct survey questions and test with HR staff first
5. Once edits have been made, finalize the document, and plan for its dissemination to your
target audience.
6. Gather and summarize responses
7. Prepare a report on results to management and executive stakeholders.
Guidelines for Employee Engagement (Table 4-8)
Online Survey Method
• Survey fraud is the biggest detriment to online surveys.
• This could prove to be an efficient and cost effective method if you can verify accuracy of
all responses received.
Managing Effective Employee Survey Projects
• Most important part of the employee survey process is gaining support from executives on
both the survey process and taking actions necessary once results have been tabulated.
Using Focus Groups and Interviews to Gather Engagement Information
• Focus Groups are designed to gain input from people who meet certain criteria, and they
can discuss any subject and be highly structured.
One-On-One Interviews
• Technique for delving more deeply into the opinions expressed by individuals who
responded to the survey.
Analyzing Data on Employee Engagement
• A PR stunt occurs when an employee is asked for their opinion, and then ignored when the
request is received.
 • When results are compiled and analyzed and action plans are developed based on those
results, employees will sense their opinions matter.
Communicating Survey Results
• A common failing of employee survey projects is that employees do not get any feedback
about what the survey showed.
• The communication cycle must be completed by providing feedback to the employees
about the survey results.
Determining Actions from Survey Results
1. Summarize responses for a composite view of employee thoughts.
2. Analyze the composites to determine employee's responses.
3. Separate into urgent, important, and later categories to reflect which issues should be
addressed quickly by the employer.
4. Build an action plan to determine assignments, who is assigned the tasks, and a timeline for
completion.
5. Follow up to check on progress; perform a resurvey of workforce if necessary.
Selecting Employee Engagement Initiatives
• Rank ordering employee engagement issues is a way to set priorities.
• Follow-up with employees occasionally to ensure streamlined communication occurs.
Business Case for Engagement
• Convert percentages of the nine performance factors into dollars, then perform a cost
analysis to determine the budget requirements for spending to accomplish those results.
Engaging Employees from Hiring to Separation
• Making employees feel like their contribution makes an impact, facilitating opportunities
for them to form relationships, and collecting feedback are ways to engage employees.
• Collecting feedback from employees to inform them of your employee engagement
strategy moving forward.
Engaging Employees Throughout the Employee Lifecycle
• Engagement begins with the first contact with the new employee and continues
throughout their employment.
Engagement Practices During Hiring and Onboarding
• HR professionals have a great amount of influence with employee engagement, beginning
with the hiring and onboarding phase.
• There are five practices that can be employed and used by HR during the hiring and
onboarding process.
o Make the job application process simple, yet informative.
o First impressions count--create an accurate first impression.
o Make the 1st day on the job organized and meaningful.
o Have a structured onboarding process to provide new hires with 90 days of
orientation and fitting in.
o Define and communicate a path to success for the new hires so they are aware of the
career advancement paths.
Engagement Practices During an Employee's Career
• The honeymoon phase is over after the first 6 months at an employer.
 • Some of the engagement practices are job enrichment, compensation, non-compensatory
rewards, and career management.
Developing Policies and Procedures to Promote Engagement
• HR professionals are supporting how the organization defines roles by helping to create
policies. They are also responsible for explaining what actions and behaviors are
acceptable, and those that are not.
• Policies lead to creation of procedures and processes for implementing the policy.
• HR needs to regularly assess its current policies and how they impact employee
engagement.
Work-Life Balance
• Telecommuting, on-site child care, gym memberships (or those on-site), concierge services,
and PTO flexibility are some good examples of providing a WLB.
Developing Policies
• HR professionals can develop policies on WLB based on other organizations' best practices.
• Policies are required to have clear guidelines for management to apply and address a
variety of situations. They are created to address a "real need."
1. Identify a need for the policy.
2. Determine what the policy's content will be in simple language. Avoid rigid rules
applied in all circumstances.
3. Obtain stakeholder support; share with those who will need to implement the policy
and find opportunities for improvement.
4. Go to the communication plan (5 W's and H) for the policy's launch.
• Always keep an eye on current policy to determine when it needs refinement, refreshment,
or revisions.
How Policies Can Affect Employee Engagement
• HR can be the gatekeeper in terms of policies that affect employee satisfaction.
• Policies can be one of the greatest sources of disenchantment for employee engagement.
• Pay attention to labor relations/contract negotiations, and exit interviews and preferred
"stay interviews" that provide feedback pointing to ineffective or "behind-the-times"
policies.
Using Motivation Theories to Increase Engagement
• Motivation is essential for employees to be engaging in their work. There are three
principles of human behavior directly linked to motivation.
o All human behavior is caused.
o All behavior is focused on achieving a result or goal.
o Every person has a unique fingerprint and is unique in that no one has the exact
experience, heredity, or even environmental/relationship influences.
• Motivation can wash off in a matter of days, whereas inspiration can ignite from within.
• Transformational leaders inspire their employees to act and provide with self-esteem
versus "shelf-esteem."
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
• In Maslow's theory, there are five basic human needs arranged in a pyramid. You can fulfill
these needs in the workplace through the following:
 o Safety and Security: Employment security such as an employment contract, pay and
benefits, working conditions.
o Belonging and love: Teams, good leadership, participation in groups, employee
associations, customer base assignments.
o Esteem: Training, recognition, awards, special assignments.
o Self-actualization: Job growth opportunities, project team participation, becoming a
mentor.
Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory
• This theory asserts employees have two different categories of needs, and they are
independent of each other, but they affect behavior in different ways.
o Hygiene (extrinsic): Job security, pay, working conditions, supervision, and co-worker
relationships
o Motivational (intrinsic): Recognition, achievement, and personal growth--on the job.

Employee Engagement & Retention: Part II

Friday, February 14, 2020
9:26 AM
Theory X, Y and Z
• Theory X suggests an authoritative management style because it assumes that employees
inherently don't like to work, and must be controlled and closely monitored.
• Theory Y suggested a participative style of management, under the belief that employees
dislike controls, and inherently want to do their best. A supervisor under this theory clearly
provides better leadership and satisfaction among employees.
o This theory assumes people will exercise self-direction and self-control in the
achievement of organizational objectives, to the degree that they are committed to
those objectives.
• Theory Z management promotes stable employment, high productivity, and high employee
morale and satisfaction.
o Dr. William Ouch's theory called the Japanese management style.
o This theory was created in the 1980s based on the Japanese's workforce were
engaged, empowered, and highly productive (cars, televisions, electronics, etc.)
o This combined X and Y theories, by promoting best management practices of Eastern
and Western cultures.
o An assumption about theory Z workers is they seek to build cooperative and intimate
working relationships with their co-workers.
o Workers expect reciprocity and support from their organization, along with
maintaining a WLB, and the importance of family, culture, and tradition being just as
important as the work they perform.
o Theory Z workers develop a sense of discipline, and a moral obligation to work hard.
o These workers can be trusted to perform their best and look after their own co-
worker's well being.
Skinner's Behavioral Reinforcement Theory
• B.F. Skinner developed the four behavioral reinforcement strategies that deal with shaping
behavior.
 o Positive reinforcement: Involves providing an employee with a desired or appreciated
reward to encourage desired behavior.
o Negative reinforcement: Involves avoiding an undesirable consequence by giving an
employee an unappreciated reward when they exhibit an desired behavior.
o Punishment
o Extinction: involves no response, and occurs when none of the other three
reinforcement strategies are effective.
Intrinsic Motivation
• Intrinsic motivation: Behavior driven by internal rewards, and this derives from within the
employee since it is satisfying to them.
• Author Daniel Pink writes a book on intrinsic motivation (Drive: The Surprising Truth About
What Motivates Us).
• Right-brain people will succeed under intrinsic motivation because it is associated with
doing tasks, work, and things that matter.
Using Rewards and Recognition to Increase Engagement
• The purpose of having employee recognition and reward programs is to acknowledge the
value of employees, their contributions, or some other identification.
• The intent is to show gratitude, appreciation, loyalty, and trust, along with continuing
engagement and motivation.
Forms of Rewards and Recognition
• Rewards need to demonstrate appreciation, and are more effective when they are
customized to an individual employee, such as tickets to an interest or hobby they may
have.
Recognition in Multinational Organizations
• Based on 2016's Employee Recognition Survey, HR professionals reported these findings:
o Organizations that had strategic recognition programs reported less frustrated and
more engaged employees.
o Programs tied to the organization's values were more effective than programs
without ties.
o Empowering employees to give and receive formal recognition had good results.
o When more than 1% of employee payroll was spent on employee recognition,
employee engagement was better.
Engagement Practices During Separation
• Exit interviews can be helpful for feedback on employee engagement.
• The level of engagement and treatment at the separation can influence the possibility of
key valued employees returning to the organization.
Performance Management
• Performance Management is a systematic process that helps improve organizational
effectiveness by providing feedback to employees on their performance results and
improvement needs.
• A good performance management system ensures employees are on course for the
completion of tasks and goals that are aligned with the organization's goals, resources, and
support is provided for the employee to perform such functions.
• Employee performance management systems include the following:
 o Delegating and planning work
o Setting expectations for performance results
o Continually monitoring performance
o Developing a capacity to perform new levels for personal and professional growth
o Periodically rating performance in a summary fashion
o Providing recognition and rewarding good performance
Organizational Values and Goals
• Creating and communicating the organization's vision, mission, strategies, specific goals,
and values form the foundation needed for the performance system.
• It is essential that an employee understands the job requirements, expected behavior, and
understand the standards in their role.
• Different cultural values and societal norms will affect the definition of standards and
performance criteria as it relates to a global workforce.
Performance Standards
• Employees need to have consistent communication in terms of what performance is
expected of them in performing their jobs, and occur on a consistent basis with the
reinforcement of organizational standards as outlined in employee handbooks and other
written material.
• The clearer the expectations are set for employees, the greater the success in having
expectations met.
Employee Performance
• Job performance means the extent to which an employee generates work output that
meets expectations for quality and quantity.
Measurement and Feedback
• Everything can be measured, even if it is inherently subjective.
Appraisal Methods
• Performance appraisals satisfy three purposes:
o Providing feedback and coaching
o Justifying the allocation of rewards and career opportunities
o Helping with employee career planning and development plans
• Performance appraisals can foster commitment and align people to contribute to initiatives
with their upcoming performance contributions.
• Most common methods only include an employee, and direct supervisor.
• 360-degree appraisals involve peers, another level of management, and sometimes
colleagues in the organization whose job function interacts with the employee.
• Methods for rating the performance can be one of the following:
o Management by Objectives (MBO)
o Behaviorally Anchored Ratings (BARS)
o Category Rating
 Graphic Scale: Most common type, where an appraiser checks the place on the
scale for categories of tasks and behaviors that are listed. Usually contains a
comments section that provides justification for the rating.
 Checklist: Another common appraisal rating which the appraiser selects one
word or statement that best describes the performance.
 Ex. "The employee consistently meets all deadlines" or "Employee consistently
misses deadlines"
Forced Choice: Variation of the checklist approach. This can be difficult to
convey to employees and understand from an employee's perspective.
o Comparative Ratings
 Employee performance is compared directly with others in the same job. This will
cause a forced distribution (bell curve).
• Narrative evaluations are time consuming for an appraiser to complete, yet they can be the
most meaningful
o Essay Format: The appraiser writes an essay describing each category of
performance.
o Critical incident: Appraiser logs the dates and details of both good and not-so-good
performance indicators; requires the appraiser to keep good, detailed notes on a
routine basis during the appraisal period, and not rely solely on an employee's most
recent performance.
o Behaviorally Anchored Rating Methods: AKA BARS, this method describes desirable
and undesirable behavior. This method works well when several employees are
performing the same function.
 Requires extensive time for development, and requires maintenance of upkeep
as job functions change throughout time.
 Offers more accurate results in performance measurement, clearer standards
for employees, and more consistency in rating.
o Self-assessment: This is complemented with direct supervisory management
evaluation.
 This approach assists with a two-way dialogue in the evaluation interview, offers
an opportunity for an employee to provide their own perception of
performance.
Errors in Performance Appraisal
• As with any subjective system, performance appraisals are subjective because they are
based on people's perceptions and opinions, so there can be shortcomings.
o Halo: Occurs when the employee is doing well in one area, and rated high in all other
areas.
o Horn: Occurs when the employee is demonstrating a strong weakness, and is thus
rated low in all other areas.
o Bias: Occurs when the evaluator's bias influences and distorts their perspective.
o Recency: When more emphasis is placed on a recent occurrence and all earlier
performances during the review period are discounted.
o Primacy: Evaluator gives more weight and emphasis to earlier performances,
discounting more recent performance.
o Strictness: Evaluator is reluctant to give high ratings, and their standards are higher
than other evaluators.
o Leniency: Evaluator does not provide low scores, and instead gives employees high
ratings on their appraisals.
 o Central: Evaluator rates all their employees in the same range, and doesn't take
account differences of actual performance among the group rated.
o Contrast: Evaluator is providing an employee rating based solely on a comparison to
that of another employee, as opposed to objective standards.
Appraisal Meeting
• Review purpose of the feedback meeting, and the importance of the appraisal process.
• Reviews results or accomplishments achieved against objectives, and explains how those
contributed to the work group's efforts.
• Identify reasons for success and causes of problems.
• Agree on action to be taken by you and the employee, and discuss ideas for development.
• Summarize the discussion and express confidence in the employee's ability to succeed.
Documenting Employee Performance
• Some performance evaluation systems have forms that are required to be filled out by the
supervisor; or some by the employee.
Business Results & Employee Growth
• Employee growth can occur with chances to increase knowledge, develop new skills, or
develop new abilities.
• They can be measured in a host of ways, but the most common in the business industry is
through P&L.
Employee Growth & Rewards
• Actively disengaged employees are more likely to steal from their employers, negatively
influence their co-workers, miss workdays, and drive customers away.
• People want recognition for their hard work and accomplishments, along with real
responsibility in their job functions.
Retention
• Breakeven Point for New Hire Retention = Monthly Value of New Hire on the Job / Cost of
Recruiting and Hiring
• Cost of hiring and recruiting includes search fees, HR recruiter expense, and hiring manager
expense.
Business Case for Retention
• Actual business practices have often been inconsistent with the saying "employees are our
greatest asset."
• Increasing employee engagement should be about challenging employees, asking them to
reach their peak productivity, and providing them with meaningful work in which they can
take pride in.
• Financial costs and monetary impacts should be considered when an valued employee
departs from an organization.
Why Retention Matters
• If people are constantly coming and going on the payroll, lack of consistency can be a
detrimental to productivity.
• An organization where people stay longer means higher consistency in all respects.
Retention Practices & Strategies
• HR Professionals have written plans that describe how the organization will address
retention issues.
 • Drivers of Retention:
o Onboarding and orientation
o Mentorship programs
o Employee compensation
o Recognition and reward systems
o Work-life balance
o Training and development
o Communication and feedback
o Dealing with change
o Fostering teamwork
o Team celebration
Retention Initiatives
• Retention needs to be addressed with focus, definition, and needs to be content in
business case terms.
o Clear and consistent job expectations
o Supervision
o Training and development
o Promotional opportunities
o Recognition
o Respect
o Perceived equity
Evaluating Retention
• The most obvious means of evaluating a retention program is to monitor the retention
rate.
• Another method is conducting exit interviews with people who are leaving the payroll.
• Stay interviews survey key employees and what is causing them to stay in the organization.
• It is fully up to HR professionals to influence a person’s employment decision possible.
Retention Measurements
• Employee retention is the positive side of employee turnover; thus being a solid indicator
for how well the retention programs are within an organization.
Evaluating Employee Engagement
• Going through the survey process is one portion of evaluating retention, conducting
another survey can indicate the effectiveness of employee engagement.
Measuring Engagement
• Employee engagement does not have specific measurements, but there can be substitutes
such as turnover and absenteeism, which can gauge an employee's happiness in their work.
Engagement Metrics
• There needs to be benchmarks set in each measurement categories to get a reading in
each of your categories.
Learning & Development: Part I
Monday, February 17, 2020
6:43 PM
Functional Area 4 - Learning & Development
 • Learning and Development activities enhance the KSAOs and competencies of the
workforce to meet the organization's business needs.
Learning & Development in Today's Organizations
• Fundamental underpinnings of the learning organization remain aligned to Senge's five
disciplines.
• Learning strategies nowadays are leveraging mobile learning solutions and mobile
performance web-based websites.
• Younger employees expect the latest technologies that allow for flexibility in
communication.
Factors Affecting Learning & Development
• Adult learning takes place in our personal lives, work lives, and stresses associated with
both environments.
• Organizational learning is the process of improving actions through greater knowledge and
understanding.
• Talent management is forecasting of future people required by organizational needs, and
developing plans for those needs.
• Knowledge management involves actions that capture, develop, share, and effectively use
organizational knowledge such as OTJ discussions, formal apprenticeship, formal
discussions, professional training, etc.
• Competency models identify the specific competencies needed in each job within the
organization.
Impact of Globalization
• Globalization impacts training and development since there is an impact on the
organization's competitiveness in the marketplace.
Cultural Issues
• Learning environments must allow people to practice and make mistakes.
Global Talent Management
• Cultural differences influence learning and development efforts, and can impact the
learning process and achievement of training objectives.
Adult Learning
• Trainability is centered around adult learning, and is concerned with the readiness to learn
and associated motivation. Andragogy is the study of how adults learn. There's five
assumptions about learning in adults versus children.
o Self-concept: Moves toward self-directed and self-sufficiency.
o Experience: Accumulate more experience that they tuck away and access in learning
situations.
o Readiness to learn: Adjust to a readiness state of learning because of developmental
requirements for their stage of life and social roles.
Understanding the Adult Learner
• Three learning styles of adults:
o Auditory learners
 Benefit most from a lecture style
 Succeed when directions are read aloud or information is requested verbally
 Interpret meanings of speech through listening to tone of voice, speech, etc.
 o Visual learners
 Rely on a presentation style
 Perform best when seeing facial expressions and body language
 Understand content by use of graphics
 Value to-do lists, flip charts, and written notes
 Want to take detailed notes and absorb information
o Kinesthetic learners
 Known as tactile learners
 Learn with a hands-on approach and prefer to explore the physical aspects of
learning
 Most successful when totally engaged with the learning activity such as in role
playing, practicing, etc.
Active Learning & Retention
• Greater retention comes with greater participation in the learning process.
Obstacles to Learning
• According to K.P. Cross, there are three barriers to adult participation in learning:
o Situational: Arise from one's situation or environment at a given point.
o Institutional: Practices and procedures that discourage or exclude adults from
participating in organized learning activities.
o Dispositional: Related to attitudes and self-perceptions about one's self as a learner.
Learning Styles
• Adults learn at different rates, known as learning curves.
o The motivation for learning
o Prior knowledge or experience
o Specific task or knowledge to be learned
o Aptitude and attitude about the knowledge or skill to learn
• Increasing returns
o Pattern comes into play when a person is learning something new
o This curve assumes the individual will learn as time progresses
• Decreasing Returns
o Amount of learning increases rapidly in the beginning, and the rate of learning slows
down
o Once learning is achieved, the learning then stops
o Usually occurs with routine tasks such as clerical work
• S-Shaped
o Learning curve is a blend of increasing and decreasing returns curves
o The person is learning something difficult, such as problem solving or critical thinking.
Learning may be slow at the beginning until the person becomes familiar with the
learning.
• Plateau curve
o Learning in the beginning quickens, and then flattens.
o The plateau is not permanent, and with additional coaching, training, and support,
the learning with ramp up again
 o Frustrating to the learner if they're not getting the support they need to master the
task.
Training & Development
• Training and development can be a dedicated group at an organization, or outsourced from
different consulting firms, law firms, or industry associations.
Training Design & Development (ADDIE Model)
• Originally adopted by FSU for military personnel, it stands for Analyze, Design, Develop,
Implement, Evaluate.
• Analysis (A)
o Data is received and collected to identify where they may be a lack of productivity, or
gaps in desired performance.
o Assessment will point the KSAs that are lacking, and need to be addressed for T&D
objectives.
• Design (D)
o Response to gap analysis performed in the first stage of ADDIE
o An outline of what the training design will be and the order of the presentation
o Each training effort should begin with a statement of objectives: "What will
participants be able to do when they have completed the training?"
Cultural Influences on Analysis
• There is a culture of organization that explains values and norms for behavior, and a
culture of each individual employee's background.
• It is the task of the training organization to create the ability to merge the organization's
culture with employee backgrounds to accomplish organizational objectives.
Cultural Influences on Design
• Culture can play an important role in designing training programs when a large portion of
training participants will be from a specific cultural background.
Development
• Development of training materials is the phase when pencil meets paper and actual
training materials and coursework are created.
o Learning activities: Development can produce training that makes use of lectures,
small and large group exercises, individual study and feedback, audiovisual
contributions, and other techniques.
o Training Delivery: There's no one perfect teaching method, and the method used
should be depend upon the training circumstances and the material being covered.
o Self-Directed Study: Known as Auto-didacticism, involves the learner making decisions
about what and when to study.
 Will seek instruction from parents, teachers, experts, etc.
o Instructor-Led training: Requires a "head-of-the-class" trainer presenting learning
material and leading learning exercises.
o OJT: Learning how to perform specific job functions, or how to use equipment and
tools required on the job.
 Involves a supervisor or co-worker showing and then supervising as new tasks
are learned or practiced.
 o Blended learning: Involves use of both classroom instruction and computer-based
instruction programs.
o Learning systems: Rely on computer technology.
o E-Learning: Use of electronic systems in the learning process.
o Learning portals: Websites that act as repositories for materials.
o LMS: Software applications for the administration, documentation, tracking, and
reporting and delivery of electronic educational technology education courses or
training programs
o Webinars: Internet-based seminars conducted using an instructor presentation, and
is usually accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation.
o Mobile Learning: Involves use of tablets and smartphones to access training materials
or course content, along with reference materials important to learning process.
o Virtual-world simulations: Done by using the replications of real-world conditions.
Cultural Influences on Development
• Extent to which culture plays a role in vocational training related to values, expectations,
and norms.
Implementation
• Once training is designed and constructed, the next phase involves putting it to use.
Pilot Testing
• Involves presentation of the training program, which all materials collected.
• Normally filled by the training developer/writer who is versed in training development or
delivery.
• Someone is designated to observe and take notes about what portions worked well, and
what programs
Content Revisions
• Review of problems occurred in the program.
Translation & Interpretation
• It is necessary to translate materials into languages to be used when training will be offered
in a multilingual audience.
Instructor Selection
• Candidate recruiting, screening, and selection are all a part of this step in the process.
• Instructor selection is identification of the person who will lead the program.
Logistical Considerations
• Facility location, internet connections, equipment all fall into this category.
Announcing, Implementing, and Supporting
• Training programs must be announced to the target audience so people who need the
training can be selected for participation.
Evaluation
• Evaluation = Grading (pass/fail)
Evaluation Methods- Kirkpatrick's Four Levels
• The following are the four levels of training evaluation he identified:
o Reaction: Measuring how participants react to the training.
o Learning: Measuring how much a participant's knowledge has increased because of
the training.
 oBehavior: Measuring how participant behavior has changed several weeks following
the training.
o Results: Measuring the outcomes, benefits, or results of the training.
Computing the ROI of Training
• Determine total cost of training
• Determine total value of benefits achieved by the training
• Determine net benefit by subtracting the cost from the benefits.
• Determine percentage of benefits over by dividing the cost into the net benefits
• Multiply the result by 100 to restate the result as a percentage.

Learning & Development: Part II

Tuesday, February 18, 2020
6:16 PM
Career Development
• Defined as the lifelong individual process that involves planning, managing, learning, and
transitions at all ages and stages in work life.
Managing Career Development
• There are two processes in career development:
o Career development: Assesses an individual's skills, talents, experiences, and potential
abilities.
o Career management: Involves implementing and monitoring employee career paths
at an organizational level.
 Employer provides the employee development, opportunities, and succession
planning.
 Career management from the organizational perspective is to assist with
aligning the existing workforce talent with new business objectives, an
atmosphere with positive morale, and retain needed talent.
Roles in Career Development
• Individuals bear the primary responsibility for their own career, and are required to be
proactive in planning their career progression and not reply on their organization to direct
their career path.
• Managers and supervisors perform four roles in assisting employees in their career
development:
o Coach: listening, clarifying
o Appraiser: Giving feedback, clarifying performance standards
o Advisor: Suggesting options, making recommendations
o Referral agent: Consulting with employees on action plans, and linking them to
organizational resources
Cultural Influences on Career Development
• Diverse populations and their career choices may be constrained by socialization, access to
guidance and assessment, tracking into certain fields, societal and self-stereotypes, etc.
• Barriers to career development may include lack of development may include lack of
developmental feedback or mentors, discrimination in promotion/transfer, tokenism,
hostility, plateauing, less access to training, stress, or self-imposed performance pressure.
Forms of Career Development
• A typical model for a career development program will include the following stages:
o Occupational preparation: Occupations are assessed, decided upon, and necessary
education and skill levels are pursued.
o Organizational entry: A person obtains and decides on job offers from organizations
they want to work for, or internal changes within a current organization.
o Early career establishment: Employee learns a new job, organizational norms, and
other rules for fitting into the job. Employee gains work experience and career skills.
o Midcareer: Employee evaluates their career objectives, with an understanding of
their current life situation, and may choose to shift career direction.
o Late career: Employees focus on retirement planning, and are more concerned with
life considerations such as hours worked, and what assignments may cause additional
stress. Mentoring early career employees is normal at this stage.
Employee Self-Assessment Tools
• With a combination of employees self-assessing their performance and creating a two-way
dialogue in the evaluation interview, it offers an employee the opportunity to provide their
own perception of their performance.
• Engages employees in a proactive means of creating goals and objectives, along with
career development.
Apprenticeships
• Apprenticeships are programs that allow untrained individuals to enter a trade of
profession through formal OJT, classroom training, and coaching programs.
• Usually followed by journey-level status once conditions for ending the apprenticeship
have been met.
• Usually for professionals such as electricians, plumbers, etc.
Job Rotation, Enlargement, and Enrichment
• Job rotation involves an individual spending a short time in each of several job positions to
gain experience in each type of work without becoming an expert.
• Job Enlargement: Taking on more work of the same type.
• Job enrichment: Involves taking on more added responsibilities, expanding the job
assignment's impact.
Projects, Committees, and Team Participation
• These experiences can provide developmental opportunities helping an individual get
ready for promotions or other assignments with greater responsibility.
• Offer exposure to different part of the organization that could be helpful in the next job
assignment.
Internal Mobility
• Opportunities within an employer's organization that can be used for employee career
development.
o Promotions: A job move that involves an increase in job responsibility and
compensation.
o Demotions: Occurs when an employee has difficulty performing well at a given level
of responsibility; frequently involved in the disciplinary process that precedes
termination of employment.
 o Transfers: Laterals
o Relocations and international assignments: Geographical movements from one job to
another that can help career development by providing new experiences, which
could be helpful should the incumbent be promoted.
o Dual-career ladders: Allow mobility for employees without requiring them to be
placed into the managerial enclave; a way for employees to advance without
pursuing a management track. These individuals exhibit one or more of the following:
 Substantial technical or professional expertise beyond the basic levels.
 Licensure or required credentials
 Known for innovation
 May or may not be well-suited for management or leadership
o Dual career development program increase complexity and value to the organization,
and increase compensation for the employee.
Individual Coaching/Counseling
• This process involves assisting people in identifying their developmental needs, and
providing skill development and practice necessary for achieving the desired level of
performance.
Mentoring
• Offers involvement with the responsibility of success of other people in the organization.
Universities, Colleges, Associations, Continuing Education Programs
• Partnerships with these institutions can support employee development and networking
efforts.
• Possible through employer underwriting to encourage employer participation.
Career Development Trends
• Employees are taking responsibility for their own career development (2015).
• Contemporary trends in career development include the following:
o Multiple jobs and careers: Moving from one specialty to another to develop
experience
o Greater individual responsibility: Moving from one job to another to accept greater
responsibility
Non-traditional employment: Work in jobs that have traditionally been done in the
opposite sex. (Secretary, nurse, etc.)
o Temporary Contract and contingent work: Developing experience through brief job
assignments in various, untried subject areas or levels of responsibility.

Total Rewards: Part I

Wednesday, February 19, 2020
8:06 PM
Functional Area 5- Total Rewards
• Total Rewards refers to the design and implementation of compensation systems and
benefit packages, which employers use to attract and retain employees.
 • HR Professionals are responsible for development and application of an organization's
compensation plan and benefits philosophy, along with benchmarking to determine their
competitiveness in the marketplace.
• Total rewards encompasses direct and indirect remuneration approaches that employers
use to attract, recognize, and retain workers.
Job Analysis
• A job is an organization of total work into units or positions.
• It is a collection of tasks, duties, and responsibilities which is treated as assigned for
individual employees, and which is different from other assignments. (Dale Yoder)
• A position is a regular set of duties and responsibilities regularly assigned to the individual.
• A job analysis is the process of collecting information about a job.
• A job is a collection of tasks that can be performed by a single employee to contribute to
the production of some product or service provided by the organization. (Herbert G.
Heneman III)
Job Analysis Considerations
• The following considerations must be factors in conducting a job analysis:
o The facts defined must relate to the job and not the incumbent.
o Duties and responsibilities must be for the job as it exists rather than what it is ought
to be.
o Job facts must be verified to ensure accuracy.
o Each duty must be analyzed to ensure it is essential to the job function.
o When there is more than one job incumbent, only one job analysis should be
required.
Job Analysis Methods
• Observation
o Involves direct observation of employees performing the tasks of the job, recording
observations, and translating them into the necessary KSAs.
o Provides a realistic view of the daily tasks and activities performed.
o Works for short-cycle jobs.
• Interview
o Interviewer obtains necessary information from the employee, peers, supervisors,
and team/unit members about KSAs needed to perform the job.
o Interviewer uses predetermined questions with new ones based on the response of
the interviewee.
o This method is good for professional jobs.
• Highly-Structured Questionnaire
o Involves questionnaires structured in a way that requires specific responses aimed at
determining the frequency in which certain tasks performed, their relative
importance, and the skills required.
• Open-ended Questionnaire
o Involves use of questionnaires to job incumbents, and sometimes supervisors or
managers, asking about the KSAs necessary to perform the job.
o Composite statement of job requirements is published from which a job description
can be refined.
 • Work diary or log
o Maintained by the employee in this method.
o Job information, including frequency and timing of tasks is recorded in the diary.
o They are analyzed and patterns are identified and translated into duties and
responsibilities.
Job Analysis Outcomes
• Job description:
o Functional description of what contents the job includes.
o Narration of job contents, description of activities and duties to be performed in the
job, relationship with other jobs, equipment and tools involved, nature of supervision,
working conditions, and job hazards.
• Job Specifications:
o Focuses on the person doing the job.
o Statement of the minimum levels of qualifications, KSAs, experience, judgement, and
attributes required to effectively perform the job.
o Statement of minimum acceptable qualifications an incumbent must have to perform
a given job.
o Sets forth KSAs required.
• Job competencies:
o Measurable or observable KSAs, behaviors, that are critical to the success job
performance.
o Allows employers to do the following:
 Plan how they will develop and organize their workforce.
 Determine which job classes fit their business needs.
 Recruit and select the best employees.
 Manage and train employees effectively.
 Develop staff to fill future vacancies.
 Core competencies can be divided in the following:
• Knowledge competencies: Practical or theoretical understanding of
subjects.
• Skill and ability competencies: Natural or learned capacities to perform
acts.
• Behavioral competencies: Patterns of action or conduct.
Job Analysis Uses
• Human resource planning: Forecast HR requirements for knowledge and skills.
• Recruitment: Find out how and when to hire people for future openings.
• Selection: A proper understanding of what is to be done on a job should occur before
selection.
• Placement and orientation: After selection, place them on jobs best suited to their
interests, activities, and aptitude.
• Training: No confusion about job expectations here, or training cannot proceed.
• Counseling: Managers can counsel employees about their careers when they understand
different jobs in the organization.
 • Performance appraisal: Worth of the person doing the job can be assessed by comparing
what the person is supposed to be doing, compared to what the individual has done.
• Job design and redesign: It is easier to locate weak spots and take remedial steps once jobs
are properly understood.
Job Documentation
• Job documentation includes creation of job descriptions, specifications, and competencies.
• Job documentation does the following:
o Establish evaluation criteria for job performance
o Provides data used to compare pay with that of other organizations.
o Assist in assignment of objective classifications or job titles to employees.
o Communicates performance expectations to supervisors and employees.
o Reduces an organization's liability exposure to discrimination charges allegations.
o Assists employers in recognizing and addressing reasonable accommodation and
other legal compliance requirements.
Job Evaluation
• Job evaluation is the systematic determination of the relative worth of jobs in an
organization.
• Conducting job evaluations are an essential first step in creating an appropriate wage
structure that accommodates jobs of different worth, while preserving the core objective
of internal pay equity.
Job-Content Based (Internal) Job Evaluation
• In job-content based job evaluation (internal), the relative worth and pay opportunities of
different jobs are based on an assessment of their content and their relationship to other
jobs within the organization.
• In a market-based job evaluation (external), the relative worth and pay opportunities of
different jobs are based on their market value or going rate in the market place.
Non-quantitative Job-Content Job Evaluation
• Primary objective of a non-quantitative method is establishing a relative hierarchy of jobs
based on each job's relative worth.
• Referred to as whole-job methods since they rank jobs as a whole without placing a
numerical value on each job.
• Quantitative methods include point-factor and factor comparison methods.
• Quantitative methods evaluate factors on a defined measurable scale, and provide the
score that's measurably compared of one job to another.
• Job Ranking
o Known as a whole-job comparison
o Comparison of the whole job compared to another whole job, rather than a
comparison based on each job's measurable factors.
o Quick and easy, but not every precise.
o Paired-comparison method: Can be used when there are many jobs to evaluate.
 Enables each job to be compared with every other job.
 Job with the greatest opportunity for upward mobility is ranked the highest, and
then accordingly.
• Job Classification
 o Result of grouping jobs into a predetermined number of grades or classifications.
o Each classification has a class description.
o Ex: General Schedule (Federal Government)
• Benchmark jobs are used when classes can be further identified, and have the following
characteristics:
o Essential functions and KSAs are stable and established.
o Represent the entire range of jobs in each class.
o Significant percentage of workers are employed in these jobs.
o External market rates for these jobs are an acceptable basis for setting wages.
• In this method, a job may compared to a similar job or other jobs in the GS to determine its
relative ranking
o Known as a job-to-predetermined-standard comparison.
Quantitative Methods
• Quantitative methods use mathematical data, and nonquantitative methods use qualitative
data.
• There following methods are quantitative methods:
o Point-Factor method: Most commonly used job evaluation method, and uses specific
compensable factors as reference points to measure relative job worth. Two well
known systems used to identify compensable factors are the following:
 The Hay Plan: Uses standard criteria comprising 3 factors: know-how, problem-
solving, and accountability.
 The Factor Evaluation System (FES): Determines levels of duties and
responsibilities using a point rating system to evaluate selected positions.
• Uses weighted factors to address major characteristics of responsibility,
education/experience, job conditions, physical requirements, supervision,
training, etc.
o There are five steps in the point-factor method evaluation:
 Identify key jobs: Benchmark jobs that are well known and stable.
 Identify compensable factors: Experience and education are most often used,
along with KSA, working conditions, and supervisory responsibilities.
 Weight factors according to their overall worth.
 Divide each job factor into degrees that range from high to low.
 Determine total points
o Factor Comparison Method: Involves ranking each job by each compensable factor,
and identifying dollar values for each level of each factor to develop an actual pay
rate for the evaluated job,.
 Most often used in union negotiations as part of a labor contract.

Total Rewards: Part II

Wednesday, February 19, 2020
8:07 PM
Market-based (External) Job Evaluation
• Market value based job evaluation is not a true evaluation, but can be used to price jobs.
• Prevailing wage rates are used to represent the relative worth of the jobs.
 • This type of evaluation is beneficial when an organization has similar jobs in various
locations throughout the United States.
• Disadvantages include reliable data only encompasses a significant number of jobs within
an organization, vulnerable to legal challenges, and do not recognize internal job value.
Remuneration (Pay) Surveys
• Many organizations rely on pay surveys as a systematic way to collect, evaluate, and
classify their jobs; adjust pay structures; and provide market information to top
management.
• They collect data on starting wage rates, base pay, pay ranges, overtime pay, shift
differentials, and incentive pay plans.
• Organizations that want maximum control over their surveys can design their surveys,
manage it's administration, do it's own data analysis, customize the report, and control the
transfer of data.
Data Analysis
• To be accurate, survey data must be verified, aged, leveled, and factored for geography.
Survey Data Analysis
• Survey data must be verified and may need aging, leveling, and/or factoring for location.
o Aging: Technique used to make outdated data current, and a phenomenon regularly
occurs with printed data because of the time lapse between when data is collected,
organized, printed, and published.
o Leveling: Consists of adjusting the survey number by an appropriate percentage
needed to achieve a match.
o Geography: Determines the percent difference in job value for a given location
(factored into a comparison).
Frequency Distributions and Tables
• Frequencies distributions and tables are used to sort salary data gathered from various
remuneration surveys.
Measures of Central Tendency
• Measures of central tendency are another way to analyze salary survey data.
o Mean (average): AKA unweighted average, the average or mean is average value
arrived at by giving equal weight to every participant's actual pay.
o Weighted Average: Average result accounting for number of participants and each
participant's pay.
o Median: Middle number in the range.
Mode: Most frequently appearing number in a range.
Pay Structure
• Establishing a pay structure occurs after an organization has determined its relative
internal job values and collection of appropriate market survey data.
Pay Grades
• AKA job groups, a way an organization sorts jobs of similar values.
• There are no fixed rules that apply to creating pay grades.
• The following issues when creating pay grades should be the following:
o Size and structure of the organization
o Distance between lowest and highest job in the organization
 o Organization's pay increase and promotion policy
o Grouping of FLSA jobs, along with job families (clerical, technical, professional,
supervisory, and management jobs).
o Create sufficient grades to permit distinguishing difficulty
• Enables management to develop a well-coordinated pay system, rather than having to
create a separate pay range for each job.
Pay Ranges
• Pay ranges establish upper and lower boundaries of each pay grade.
Quartiles and Percentiles
• Quartiles and percentiles show dispersion of data throughout a range.
• Identified as common reference points an organization uses to measure it's position
against the market, along with internal compensation management purposes.
Range Spread
• The range spread is the dispersion of pay from the lowest to the highest boundary of a pay
range.
o Non-exempt jobs: 40%
o Exempt jobs: 50%
o Executive jobs: 60%
• Lower level jobs have a narrow range between pay ranges, and tend to be more skill-based,
which provides for more movement opportunity.
• Ranges should overlap so progression is steady within a pay grade.
• There should also be a large enough distance between range midpoints so pay
compression between low and high ranges do not occur.
Compa-ratios
• Compa-ratios are indicators of how wages match, lead, or lag the midpoint.
• They are computed by Dividing the workers pay rate by the midpoint.
• Less than 100% compa-ratios mean the worker is paid less than the midpoint, anything
more than 100% means the wages exceed the midpoint.
Broadbanding
• Broadbanding is a concept that combines several pay grades or job classifications with
narrow range spreads, with a single band with a wider spread.
• Organizations adopt broadbanding to simplify their pay levels and reduce management
oversight requirements.
• In some cases, broadbanding can be a disadvantage since it may not be compatible with
some organization's compensation philosophies.
Compensation Systems
• Compensation system is sum of all monetary and nonmonetary benefits provided to
employees in exchange for their willingness to work.
Base Pay Systems
• Base pay systems (hourly or salary) are established after an organization has analyzed,
evaluated, and priced it's jobs, along with designed a pay structure.
• Base pay system choices include single or flat-rate systems, time-based step rate systems,
performance-based systems, performance-based merit pay systems, productivity-based
systems, and person-based systems.
• Single or Flat-Rate System
o Compensates all workers at the same rate for each task performed or hour worked,
regardless of factors such as performance or seniority.
o Used for task-based jobs
o Incentivizes workers to complete tasks ASAP, but some can be penalized for not
meeting established standards.
• Time-Based Step Rate System
o Bases employee's pay rate on the length of time in the job.
o Increases occur on a predetermined schedule.
o Automatic Step Rate
 Pay range is divided into several steps
 Each employee with the required seniority receives a one-step pay increase.
 Common in public-sector job and union environments.
o Step Rate with Variability Considerations
 Performance can influence the size or timing of the pay increase.
o Combination Step Rate and Performance Structure
 Employees receive step rate increases up to the established job rate.
 After this level, increases are only granted for superior job performance.
 This system requires a supporting performance appraisal, along with good
communication and understanding by the workers paid under this system.
• Performance-Based Merit System
o Based on an employee's individual job performance.
o Known as merit pay or pay for performance.
o Pay increases are normally awarded on an annual basis, and incumbents are
appointed at the minimum of their applicable pay range.
o Must be understood by employees affected by this system.
o Clearly stated performance appraisal program is required to support the merit pay
system.
• Productivity-Based System
o Pay is determined by the employee's output.
o Mostly used on an assembly line in a manufacturing environment.
o Straight Piece Rate System
 Employee receives one rate of pay up to the production standard, and higher
rate of pay when the standard is exceeded.
 Focus on quantity rather than quality, so quality control measures should be
implemented.
o Person-Based Systems
 Employee capabilities determine the employee's pay.
 Three types of person-based systems:
• Knowledge-based systems: Person's pay is based on the level of
knowledge the person has in a field. Used in learned professions such as
doctors and lawyers.
 • Skill-based system: Paid for the number and depth of skills they have that
are applicable to their job. Heavy equipment operators are paid in this
field.
• Competency-based system: Pay is linked to the level at which an
employee can perform in a recognized competency. Typically those in OD
or Labor Relations will be paid under this system.
Pay Variations
• Pay ranges must be periodically evaluated and adjusted to reflect organizational and
market changes.
Red Circle Rates
• Used as a method to increase an employee's pay to a new rate higher than the maximum
for the assigned pay range.
• Occurs more in smaller organizations where promotional opportunities may be limited.
• In this case, the new pay level is frozen until the maximum of the pay range moves upward
to an incumbent's pay level.
Green circle Rates
• Occur when a new employee is hired at a pay rate lower then the minimum rate applicable
grade.
• Can also occur when a "fast-track" employee is promoted to a new job in a high pay grade
under circumstances where percentage pay increase needed to reach the new grade is
excessive, and might create an unwanted precedent.
• This should be considered carefully, and used as a last resort since legal challenges can
arise.
Pay Compression
• Situation that occurs where there is only a small difference in pay between employees,
regardless of their skills or experience.
• Result of the market rate for a given job outpacing the increases historically given by the
organization to high-tenure employees.
• Most common causes of pay inequities are the result of talent acquisition, overtime,
demotions, demand for technical expertise, reorganizations, reassignments, and seniority.
Pay Adjustments
• Term used to signify a pay increase for a number of reasons.
Cost of Living Increase
• A COLA is usually an upward adjustment in pay linked to a predetermined scale, measure,
or condition.
• Usually associated with employment contracts, pension benefits, and government
entitlements, such as Social Security.
• Salaries can also be tied to a COL index that varies by geographical location.
General Pay Increase
• Applies to non-union employers.
• General pay increase given to all employees regardless of their job performance, and not
linked to market pressures.
Seniority Pay Increase
• Pay increase given solely on length of service.
 • Common in unionized settings.
• In a nonunion setting, seniority pay is combined with performance.
Lump-Sum Increase
• Can either be a standalone increase or part of an annual pay increase
• Single lump-sum payment increases are subject to applicable payroll tax withholdings.
Market-Based Increase
• Usually occurs when employee retention is threatened due to employee pay not being
competitive with the market.
Differential Pay
• Differential pay is additional compensation paid to an employee as an incentive to accept
what would normally be considered adverse working conditions based on time, location, or
working conditions.
Differential pay benefits employers by incentivizing employees to accept work they might
not otherwise accept (such as graveyard shifts).
Time-Based Differential Pay
• AKA shift differential, this may be specified amount per hour or a percentage of the
employee's regular rate of pay.
• Except for OT, federal law does not legally require employers to pay a differential rate of
pay, although state requirements may differ.
Geographic Differential Pay
• Additional compensation paid to an employee to account for variations in cost of
labor/cost of living between location.
• Some companies use COGS as a factor to determine geographic pay differentials, even
though cost of labor is the primary factor companies use to determine pay differences
among locations.
Total Rewards: Part III
Monday, February 24, 2020
7:07 PM
Benefits Structure
• An employer's total benefits programs must be cost effective, meet their stated purpose,
affordable (employee and employer), and must comply with local, state, and federal law.
• Benefits needs assessment: Process to data collection and analyzation to determine
whether the employer's benefits programs meet its objectives.
Deciding Which Benefits to Offer
• Providing benefits to employees allows an employer to offer benefits to themselves, and
contributions an employer can make for benefits premiums, which are often tax-
deductible.
• Employers should offer competitive benefits to be successful.
• Employers are required to offer time off to vote, serve on a jury, and perform military
service.
• Employers are required to adhere to all requirements of workers' compensation, payroll tac
withholdings such as FICA and FUTA, and contribute to state disability programs (in this
case, CASDI).
 • Employers do not have to provide paid holidays, vacation, or paid sick leave (except where
required by state law), health benefits (except where required by state law), life insurance,
or retirement plans.
• Pros of offering benefits are:
o Tax advantages: You may be able to deduct plan contributions.
o Recruiting advantages: Use benefits packages to attract good employees, and
structure them in a way to reward and retain your best employees.
o Personal gain: Benefits for the employer, and the employees too.
o Alternatives to pay: Sometimes employees will accept benefits in lieu of higher
salaries.
• Costs are the con, especially for smaller businesses, which can include:
o May have to pay higher rates than larger employers for group health care coverage.
(since there is fewer employees to spread risk among themselves).
o Difficulty providing life insurance coverage to certain employee groups.
o Fewer design choices when offering a retirement plan because of high administrative
costs.
o Less likely to offer fringe benefits because of administrative complexity.
• What benefits should be offered depends on the following:
o What the employers can afford
o What other businesses are offering
o How the benefit can help your business
Benefits Needs Assessment
• A benefits needs analysis consists of several steps that include data collection and analysis
culminating in a report called a gap analysis
• Gap Analysis
o Review the organization's overall culture and strategy.
o Collect and analyze the employer's workforce demographics.
o Analyze the utilization costs of existing benefits plans and programs.
o Determine the potential benefits coverage and costs.
• The final step is to compare the organizational needs and budget with employee needs and
any existing benefits coverage.
• Result is a gap analysis, a document that will indicate what a benefits package should and
should not include.
Types of Benefits
• Paid time off as a reward for service provides the employee with relief from the ongoing
demands of work, and benefits the employer with increased morale and commitment.
Paid Time Off (PTO)
• PTO is a single program that combines vacation and sick leave.
• Allows employees to earn credits they can use whenever circumstances require that they
be absent from work.
• PTO usually does not require justification for an absence; it simply requires an approval in
the event of a planned absence or the accrued balance to be used in an unplanned
absence.
Vacation or Holiday Leave in the United States
 • Paid Holidays
o 6-12 Holidays a year, and are generally paid on the basis of the employer's schedule
for a regular workday.
• Paid Vacation
o Standard vacation is based on an accrual system measured on an employee's length
of service.
o Vacation can be carried over from year to year with a provision for a reasonable cap.
o Employees can cash out their paid vacation time at the discretion and approval of
their employer.
Public or National or Bank Holidays
• Most countries provide vacation or holiday time regardless of job or status.
• Certain holidays may be observed on a local basis or only by certain industries.
Maternity or Paternity (or Paternal) Leave
• Generally, parental leave is available to both mothers and fathers.
Leave Related to Illness
• Leave in the United States
o Some organizations usually also have paid sick leave policies to provide time off for
illness or injury.
o Primarily intended for the benefit of the employee, but have also been to care for a
sick family member in recent years.
o Some states mandate some sick leave accrual being allotted for taking care of a sick
family member.
• Leave in Other Countries
o Policies vary in the number of days allowed away from work, amount of wages paid,
and in some cases, the applicable waiting period.
o Sick leave may be legally required, be the result of a collective bargaining, or
determined by the employer.
Other Types of Leave
• Paid leave to trade union officials for participating in trade union duties, union projects, or
other activities.
• Paid leave to undergo training.
• In some cases, paid days off when workers get married. Extends to parents who are given
time off when their children get married.
• Paid time off for prayer (Muslim)
• Time off to carry out public duties such as campaigning as an official candidate in the
election, voting, or jury duty.
• These types of PTO are dictated by local laws.
Family-Oriented Benefits
• Some family oriented benefits include adoption benefits, child care and elder care, flexible
work hours, compressed workweeks, and telecommuting.
Flexible Work Hours
• Flexible work schedules are those that vary from the standard work schedules of an
organization.
• Based on worker needs within set parameters approved by a supervisor.
Compressed Work Weeks
• (4/10/40s) or (9/80s).
Health and Welfare
• A group health plan is an employee welfare benefit plan established or maintained by an
employer or employee organization (such as a union), or both, that provides medical care
for participants or their dependents directly or through insurance, reimbursement, or
otherwise.
Private Health Insurance
• Health care is generally paid for through social insurance funded either by employers, by
employees, through general taxation, or by some combination of these sources.
• US leads in the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but the monetary cost is much
higher.
• It is much harder for Americans to get same-day or next-day appointments, and to get
after-hour appointments.
Employee Assistance Programs
• The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is an employee benefit program offered by many
employers intended to help employees with personal problems that might adversely
impact their job performance.
• EAPs generally include short-term counseling and referral services for employees and their
families.
• Supervisors can also refer employees based upon unacceptable performance or conduct
issues.
• Provide employees with expert advice 24/7, and nearly all EAPs are outsourced.
• EAP addresses a broad and complex body of issues affecting emotional and mental well-
being.
• EAPs are active in organizations prevent and cope with workplace violence, trauma, and
other emergency response situations.
Wellness Programs
• Programs intended to improve and promote health and fitness that are usually offered
through the workplace, although insurance plans can offer them directly to their enrollees.
• Examples include weight loss programs, gym memberships, and preventative health
screenings.
Disability
• Disability ranges from a variety of conditions based on countries and programs.
• Disabled persons are more likely to live alone, be older, and be a part of minority groups.
• Short-term disability benefits usually last up to 6 months.
• This can have the same meaning as retirement income under health or medical
circumstances.
• Payments may come from employee contributions, employer contributions, government
funding, or a combination.
Life Insurance
• Funded by Social Security in many countries, and is only enough to cover a burial in most
cases, but not enough to support a beneficiary.
 • Majority of employers provide life insurance payable upon the death of the employee to a
beneficiary as a voluntary company-provided benefit.
• US employees usually receive up to a year's worth of their salary in life insurance benefits,
with an option to purchase higher amounts.
Workers Compensation
• WC is a type of insurance paid for by the employer that provides wage replacement income
and medical care benefits to employees who suffer work-related injuries or illnesses in
return for giving up the employee's right to sue his or her employer for negligence.
• Benefits regulated by the states, not the federal government.
o They prescribe rules governing coverage, eligibility, types of benefits, and funding of
the benefits.
• Defines a work-related disability as a physical condition that can result in an accident or
illness, and is caused, aggravated, precipitated, or accelerated by a work activity or
environment.
• Only covers worker health problems that are identified as work-related disabilities, injuries,
or illnesses.
• WC benefits include the following:
o Paid medical expenses and wage replacement benefits under certain circumstances.
 Income benefits: Benefits replace income that may be lost due to a work-
related injury or illness. Can include temporary income benefits, impairment
income benefits, supplemental, and lifetime income benefits.
 Medical benefits: Pay for necessary medical care to treat a work-related injury
or illness.
 Death benefits: Replace a portion of lost family income for eligible family
members of employees who are killed on the job.
 Burial benefits: Pay for some of the deceased employee's funeral expenses to
the person who paid the expenses.
o Vocational rehabilitation or job displacement benefits.
o Permanent and temporary partial or total disability benefits
o Survivor's benefits in cases of fatal work injuries or illnesses.
• WC is a European concept dating back to Otto van Bismarck (German Chancellor).
Severance Package
• A severance package is pay and benefits an employee receives when leaving employment
at a company. It can also include the following:
o Additional payment (based on length of service).
o Payment for unused vacation time (unless mandated by state law) or sick leave.
o Medical, dental, or life insurance.
o Job search assistance, such as access to employment services, or help in producing a
resume.
o Package may require the severed employee to sign a general release.
• Severance packages typically provide lump sum payments to workers who involuntarily or
voluntarily separate from their employers.
• Severance packages are required in most countries.
• Issues to address associated with severance packages are the following:
 o Requirements applicable to warnings for misbehavior or inadequate job performance.
o Clearly stated reasons for the termination.
o Specifically described severance payments with applicable conditions, if any.
Compensation for Termination
• Support for employees even with cause for termination is required in some countries.
• Organizations are responsible for ensuring severance pay is compliant and fairly
compensates terminated employees to avoid discrimination lawsuits, regulatory fines, and
penalties.
Retirement
• Retirement plans allow current employees to make financial provisions for the future.
• Many plans are government mandated, and paid through employee and employer
contributions.
• Main goal is providing employees with payable income periodically.
• Two types of contribution plans:
o Defined benefit plan
 Insures against loss of income in events of retirement, death, or disability.
 Employer promises to pay a specific benefit based on pay, age, and service
member
 Employer is responsible for contribution
 Benefit amount is based on mathematical formula
o Defined contribution plan
 Goal is to accumulate savings through deferred compensation and investment
earnings.
 Employer promises to contribute periodically to each member's individual
account.
 Employer is responsible for contributing periodically.
 Benefit is the account balance, payable in a lump or as an annuity for life.
Payments
• Retirement payments are usually made in the form of an annuity, paid monthly until death.
• Particular formulas for payment of retirement vary.
Unemployment Insurance
• UI is a federally mandated program administered by the States that provides
unemployment benefits to eligible workers who are unemployed through no fault of their
own, and who meet other eligibility requirements of applicable state law.
• Designed to provide temporary financial assistance to unemployed workers.
• Eligibility for UI, benefit amount, and the length of time benefits are available are
determined by state law.
• Benefit funding is based solely on a tax imposed on employers.
o Eligibility: To qualify, individuals must meet requirements for wages earned or time
worked during an established period of time (AKA base period).
o In most cases, the individual must be unemployed at no fault of their own, be
available and actively seeking work, cannot be terminated for misconduct, and not be
employed due to a labor dispute.
 o Duration: Most states grant UI benefits for up to 26 weeks, but often extended
through periods of high unemployment. (approval from the President).
Social Security
• First adopted in the 1880s in Germany.
• Basic concepts of Social Security:
o Social insurance in which people receive benefits or services in recognition of their
contributions to an insurance program (e.g. retirement pensions, disability insurance,
survivor benefits, unemployment insurance).
o Services that are provided by Government or by a designated agency responsible for
specific Social Security services.
o Generally covers medical care, financial support during unemployment, sickness, or
retirement.
o Basic security
Perquisites
• Any monetary or other incidental benefit beyond salary; a gratuity; privilege or possession
held.
• Common perks identified by SHRM:
o Free/discounted products or services
o Mobile devices
o Professional organizations/certifications
o Training programs
o Education fees
• Less common perks include the following:
o Housing
o Company car/cash car allowances
o Club memberships
o Meal allowances
• Some additional perquisites include financial and legal counseling, and preventative care;
subsidized loans for home purchases, and travel allowances.
Metrics
• Knowing how to use metrics as it applies to employee benefits is an important capability
for every HR professional.

Structure of the HR Function: Part I

Friday, February 28, 2020
11:34 AM
Structure of the HR Function
• Structure of the HR Function encompasses the people, processes, theories, and activities
involved in the delivery of HR-related services that create and drive organizational
effectiveness.
• HR organization must be structured to meet the needs of the organization and its
stakeholders.
 • Gathering feedback, collecting data, and using the appropriate metrics to determine HR
performance and satisfaction enable all HR professionals to evaluate HR's effectiveness and
identify areas needing improvement and change.
The Evolving Role of HR Professionals
• HR's staff typically provided three types of support: advice, service, and control.
o Advice: Advising line management on workforce matters including policies and laws,
providing solutions and procedural steps, offering assistance and guidance on EE
issues, diagnosing problems, or gathering facts, providing resources.
o Service: Maintaining records, hiring, training, answering, and clarifying information
within a broad customer base (management, EEs, retirees, legal and regulatory
agencies).
o Control: Authoritative role involved in consistency of policy application, evaluation of
EE performance, corrective action, and designing or implementation of EE programs.
• HR's approach has become more apparent as a business strategist with a forward-thinking,
long-term global focus that includes protecting the organization from potential risks.
• An HR role must contribute in quantifiable business terms, outlining an ROI that ensures
effective and efficient use of it's human capital.
HR as a Profession
• HR Professionals are placed into a role that demands strategic thinking and planning with
an eye on overall organizational health and success.
o "Personnel management" was a staff function
o "HRM" became a management function
o HR Management is now a strategic part in helping the organization achieve it's goals.
HR in the 20th Century
• Administrative Services
o Personnel records management
 Benefits enrollment
 Attendance tracking
 Training recordkeeping
 Employee data management (HRISs)
o Employee award tracking
o Office party planning
• Operational Services
o Labor relations expertise
o Recruiting and staffing
o Training preparation and management such as operations and management skills
o Policy development
o Employee handbook management
HR in the 21st Century
• HR Professionals find themselves more involved with strategic planning and
implementation.
• Strategic Administrative Roles
o Personnel records management is now responsible for assessing EE benefit programs
as they contribute to the financial success of the organization.
 o EE award tracking has morphed into programs that will improve employee retention
and engagement.
o Office party planning has morphed into employee support programs.
• Strategic Operational Role
o Labor Relations has transformed from union contract protections to laws that apply
to most employers.
o Once policies are developed from EE benefit offerings to disciplinary processes, EE
handbook content can be prepared that communicates the policies to the EE body.
o EE has transformed to names such as cast member, crew member, associate, and
staff member.
Changes that Impact the HR Profession
• David Ulrich presents his approach in terms of deliverables, our outcomes, for which HR
should be responsible in new strategic roles: strategy execution, administrative efficiency,
employee contribution, and capacity for change.
• There are four corresponding roles for HR to play within a business:
1. As a strategic partner working to align HR and business strategy.
2. Administrative expert working to improve organizational processes and deliver basic
HR services.
3. As an employee champion, listening and responding to EE needs.
4. As a change agent managing change processes to increase the effectiveness of the
organization.
Workforce/Workplace Changes
• Rise of the middle class in emerging markets will have a large impact on the overall
workforce.
Globalization
• If something cannot be measured and shown to add value, the HR organization will be
hard-pressed to convince the C suite that it should be done.
Ethics
• It is incumbent upon HR professionals to reconcile those differences for accomplishment of
assignments, and the local expectations are satisfied without violating US laws.
Organization Growth & Retraction
• Layoffs, downsizing programs, relocations, and constructive discharges can all result in EE
dissatisfaction.
• How HR professionals communicate and help EE's through difficult periods of time will
determine how well the organization can meet its strategic objectives.
Movement of Decision Making
• Managing people from a distance involves permitting and even encouraging decision-
making by people at those locations.
Extended Organizations
• HR will help facilitate movements when manufacturing, marketing, or administrative
organizations find it necessary to create workforce placement in new, extended locations.
New Organizational Structures
• New locations may means a different organizational structure is required for the effective
management of the remote location.
 • Different types of organizational structures:
• One type is a functional structure, in which positions are grouped according to similar
job roles in a hierarchal chain.
• Another type is a divisional structure, and often applies to larger companies, and uses
a department-based organizational style, where employees who are working on a
similar project are grouped together.
• A matrix structure combines elements of both divisional and functional structures.
• A flat structure seeks to eliminate much of the hierarchy and bureaucracy that exists
in traditional companies.
• A network structure outsources many key tasks to outside organizations.
Increased Accountability
• Companies are moving towards organizational designs centered on project-based teams,
matrixed structures, and flat hierarchies.
Understanding the Organization
• HR professionals need a thorough understanding of their organization's structure, internal
environment, and the external environment and industry in which it operates.
• Understanding the organization and its design allows you to do the following:
• Be fluent in nomenclature of the business.
• Increase you and the HR function's credibility.
• Connect the dots in the strategic planning process.
• Educate others in the organization about HR's contributions and value.
• Be proactive in affecting outcomes of the organization.
The Core Business Functions
• HR professionals need to form partnerships within their organization's key business
functions to fully understand the key functional areas to support and become a strategic
partner. (marketing and sales, finance and accounting, operations, information technology)
Finance and Accounting
• A = L + E (non profit, AKA net assets)
• Finance has its focus on funding sources, such as bank loans and stock sales, along with
budgeting for income generation and expenses.
• Accounting is associated with the monies going in and out, such as payables and
receivables processing, payroll, and taxes.
• HR interfaces with finance and accounting by preparing and reviewing budgets.
Budgeting and Financial Analysis
• Budgeting is the process of estimating the amount of income and expenses that will occur
in a given period of time. (usually done on an annual basis)
• Budgeting and financial analysis are critical to any organization large enough to have
employees.
• There are two key financial reports that any organization should be preparing and studying:
• Profit and loss statement (P&L): Income and expenses over a defined period of time
(e.g. annual, fiscal year, monthly).
• Balance sheet: Shows assets compared to the liabilities outstanding.
 Also shows the amount of equity owned by the investors in the organization
• There are four basic approaches to budgeting:
 • Zero-based: Method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for each
new period. Starts from a zero base and every function within an organization is
analyzed for its needs and costs.
• Incremental: Budget prepared using a previous period's budget or actual
performance as a basis, with incremental amounts added for the new budget period.
 Encourages "spending up to the budget" to ensure reasonable allocation in the
next period.
 Encourages "use it or lose it" mentality,
• Formula: Based on some predetermined formula.
• Activity-based: Based on an activity framework, using cost driver data in the budget
setting and variance feedback processes.
• HR professionals at management levels will generally participate in creation of HR
department's budget to outline anticipated specific expenses such as office supplies,
equipment purchases, and software licenses.
• HR will provide projected budget expenses associated with plans that the organization's
strategic plan may pursue that year.
Marketing and Sales
• Marketing function has responsibilities for promoting, pricing, and locating/identifying the
customer base.
• Sales function is responsible for selling the organization's service or product.
Operations
• AKA "the heartbeat" of the organization.
• Creates the goods or services, acquire resources, and ensure customer receives those
goods or services.
• Runs off of five concepts: capacity, scheduling, inventory, standards, and control
Information Technology
• Systems, tools, and information required for all other key functions to do what they do are
the responsibilities of IT.
• IT's main goal is to support the integration of data from different systems and processes
through an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
Research & Development
• Private sector: Focus on new product design and the development/expansion of the
organization's mission to expand revenue.
• Public sector: Mostly focuses on theoretical research that promotes science and new
technologies of a public interest.
• Spending varies greatly by organization.
Organizational Structures
• Organizational structure aligns the way the parts of an organization relate to each other.
• HR professionals are responsible for being familiar with organizational structures so they
can act as a guide for management in selecting and determining which structure would be
best to gain the highest performance.
Structural Principles
• Three key principles guide organizational structure:
o Decision-making authority
 o Layers of hierarchy
o Formalization
• There are seven types of organizational structures:
o Departmental: Tasks are divided into separate duties grouping people and jobs
together.
o Chain of Command: Where an employee typically reports to one manager in an up-
down format.
 Becoming old-fashioned, since more organizations are pushing decision-making
downward matrix lines, causing the line of authority to look more lateral.
o Span of Control: Refers to number of individuals who report to a single supervisor.
 In many organizations where many workers are skilled and require little
supervision, they may report to one supervisor (AKA flat organization).
o Work Specialization: First associated with an assembly line, and where tasks were
divided into specific jobs, and workers are considered skilled labor.
 Today's organizations will typically rotate job functions on a regular basis,
training the workers in skills that add variety to their tasks.
o Centralized or Decentralized
 Centralizing pulls decision making authority to a central level of management,
such as headquarters.
 Decentralizing is pushing the authority level and decisions out to units, such as
regional divisions.
 With decentralized structures, corporate HQs will create policy and develop
programs; rollout and application are then carried out by the HR staff in the
regional divisions.
 When organization is centralized, HR HQs would make the policy and
coordinate the rollout activities or administration functions.

Structure of the HR Function: Part II

Friday, February 28, 2020
4:44 PM
Matrix
• Matrix structures create a dual chain of command, rather than a singular chain of
command.
• A huge disadvantage of a matrix structure is the conflicting priorities of the division and the
headquarters.
RACI Matrix
• Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed
• Used by organizations to better define the roles and responsibilities of each member in an
organization.
o Only one person should be (R)esponsible for a work assignment.
o (A)ccountable means an individual is designated to oversee the completion of the
assigned tasks.
 o (C)onsulted means there are appropriate SMEs when necessary to suggest any
deviations from the standard procedures.
o (I)nformed are those who have an interest in the task being performed.
Structural Alternatives
• Functional Structure: Departments are defined by the services they contribute to the
organization in a functional structure.
• Product Structure: Functional departments are grouped under major product divisions.
• Geographic Structure: Geographic regions define the organizational chart (has similar
characteristics to the product structure).
• Hybrid Structure: All the elements of the functional, product, and geographic structures are
combined.
o Generally used when an enterprise is expanding into new geographic areas.
Other Internal Environment Considerations
• HR Professionals need to be keen to the important priorities and initiatives that are on the
organization's agenda.
The External Environment
• Political factors: How and to what degree a government intervenes in the economy
(legislation, foreign trade policy, labor laws, etc.)
• Economic factors: Economic growth, interest and exchange rates, inflation, disposable
income, etc.
o Microeconomics: All about the way people spend their income
o Macroeconomics: Management of demand in any given economy.
• Social factors: AKA sociocultural factors. Factors include population growth, age
distribution, health consciousness, career attitudes, and so on.
• Technological Factors: New ways of producing and distributing goods and services, and
new ways to communicate to target markets.
The HR Organization & Function
• The function of HR is designed to serve the overall organization and it's mission.
• Grouped in the following categories, these are the HR processes:
o Participating in implementation and creation of the organization's strategy.
 Performance management
 Job design
 Communications
 Knowledge management
 HRIS selection, implementation, and integration
 Strategic planning
 Hiring
o Creating and following strategy to source, recruit, hire, develop, manage, and retain
talent.
 Creating staffing plans
 Attracting qualified talent
 Selecting the best talent
 Offering interviewing assistance to management
 Onboarding and assimilating new hires into the organization
  Developing and delivering programs for training, total rewards, employee
engagement, communications, etc.
o Collecting data and analyzing it for specific organizational needs
 Capturing and tracking data to be analyzed
 Identifying trends in the workforce and external environment that affect the
organization
 Identifying best practices and processes helpful to the organization and its
strategy
o Daily HR operations
 The processing of data, information, recordkeeping, and requests, typically
using an HRIS and ATS
 Responding to employee and internal or outside requests.
The HR Team
• The HR Leaders: Most senior of the HR group, and many will be part of the executive team,
such as the CHRO (Chief Human Resource Officer). "Round table" position where the role
tends itself to correlating organizational challenges and strategies to the HR function.
• Managers: Normally responsible for sections or units with the HR team such as the
compensation manager, talent recruitment manager, and the training manager. Direct
responsibility in coordinating and managing the activities of their specific function and the
people who are within it.
• Specialists: Singularly focused with a specific KSA, such as benefits, affirmative action, and
HRIS. Maintain and apply best practices in their specialty.
• Generalists: HR Practitioners, "jack of all trades." Requires expertise in more than one area.
Usually assigned to a single department and acts as a business partner, guiding
management of that unit, and serves as a liaison to the HR specialists and management.
HR Structural Alternatives
• An important factor is ensuring that the HR structure is aligned with the organization's
strategic plan.
Shared Services
• Developed by Ulrich and Brockbank, and is used in organizations with multiple business
units.
• Most common functions assigned for consolidation are healthcare, retirement, and
compensation. Four favorable outcomes are associated with implementation of the shared
services model:
o Reduced administrative time by staff on tasks
o Reduction in administration costs
o Consolidation of redundant functions
o Better tracking of EE Data
Centers of Excellence (COE)
• A team, shared facility, or entity that provides leadership, best practices, research, support,
or training for a focus area.
• AKA center of expertise
Third-Party Contractors
 • Outsourcing: Third-party vendor provides selected activities, such as benefits
administration.
• Co-sourcing: Third-party provides dedicated services to HR.
Measuring and Demonstrating HR Value
• Measuring results serves to reinforce HR's role in showing effectiveness to management.
• ROI is essential to HR to further the investment request for its strategic plan serving the
organization.
Performance Measures
• KPIs are used to measure HR value, and KPI's gauge progresses toward goals and standards
of performance that have been agreed to. (e.g. training)
Balanced Scorecards
• Performance metric used to identify and improve various functions and their resulting
outcomes.
• Used to measure and provide feedback, and is focused on specific functions or initiatives.
• Balanced scorecard must include the following for effectiveness:
o Accountability and measurable results
o Measures, metrics, and targets that are understandable and supported by data.
o Measures that have actionable items associated with them that can be measured.
o Meaningful measures that focus on results.
o Carefully planned, focused on end results, and executed.
HR Audit
• A systematic and comprehensive evaluation of HR's policies, procedures, and practices that
protect the organization, create best practices, and identify areas needing improvement.
• Audits identify gaps in performance and outcomes, and are usually identified in priority
order to be corrected.
o Compliance: Driven by a law or regulation
o Best Practice: Compares its function with other organizations
o Strategic: Reviews strengths and weaknesses of functions to align with the
organization's strategic plan and initiatives.
o Function-specific: Has a specific focus on a function or process
Metrics
• Typical metrics used for measuring the HR value:
o Absence rate
o Applicant yield
o Cost per hire
o Human Capital ROI
o Human Capital Value Added
o Key Talent Retention
o Promotion pattern
o Success Ratio
o Training ROI
o Transfer/relocation
o Turnover costs
o Turnover rate
 o Vacancy costs
HR and the Strategic Process
• HR brings significant expertise, knowledge, and perspective to the organization's strategic
planning process when it has a place at a table during a planning retreat.
• HR needs to ensure their goals are aligned with the organization's.
HR's Role
• HR contributes perspective and ensures all HR implications are considered, such as laws,
regulations, community, union contracts, etc.
• Plays a role in influencing and voicing an opinion for leadership and stakeholders at large.
• Tasks that HR performs may be high in strategic value, such as orientation of new hires, or
low in value, such as activities that third-party vendors provide.
Leveraging HR's Strengths
• HR knowing the entire organization is part of the strategic planning process.
• HR is heavily involved in managing the talent, training, recruiting, risk management, policy
administration, etc.
• HR can be the ringmaster and integrate the following stakeholders:
o Employees: HR needs to know the nuances of each geographical area in the
organization, and what laws and cultural issues are impacting each area.
o Suppliers: HR's knowledge of the supplies and challenges they may pose such as
ethical behavior is of great value within the strategic process.
o Communities: HR's role in CSR and interacting with communities of the organization,
allows HR to identify potential conflicts or agreements with its communities
associated with new strategic plans on the table.
o Government: Laws and regulations for compliance.
o Labor groups: Applies to organizations with labor unions.
Contributing the HR Perspective
• HR Professionals can contribute an important perspective during the strategic planning
process.
• They have a main focus in executing the organization's strategy.
Negotiating & Influencing
• HR professionals should know and work the process for negotiation, which has six phases:
o Preparation: Identify the needs and wants that would be concessions.
o Relationship Building: Personal character is involved, and means having trust with
others at the planning table.
o Information exchange: Thorough understanding of both sides of the issue is
necessary.
o Persuasion: Seeking what are the mutually beneficial options, other than going for the
win-lose positioning.
o Concessions: Find the wants that are not "essential" and decide whether giving them
helps the negotiation process.
o Agreement: When both sides have agreed, put it in writing.
• Influencing is an ability goes hand in hand with credibility.
 • HR Professionals need to use their influence to provide added value for the formulation of
strategy to add what they know, and their opinion of how the strategy can happen or what
it is challenges might be.
Due Diligence
• Due diligence refers to digging in and looking at all the factors surrounding a matter.
Aligning the HR Function and Strategic Plan of the Organization
• HR's administrative and operational activities are directly aligned with the organizational
strategy and objectives.
• HR professionals need to understand the business and industry they support and know all
the business function's own strategic plans.
HR Strategic Alignment
• HR serves the entire organization and the needs of each business unit.
• Forecasting the HR needs is an important and essential role of HR in strategy.
Ensures that HR Fulfills Its Basic Mission
• HR's basic mission is to help the organization achieve its vision with a highly engaged and
talented workforce.
• HR must understand how all business units perform their own work and their own
priorities, values, and business plans to design their process to fit in.
Learn About Your Organization's History
• Knowing the story of where the organization has been, how it began, and where it intends
to go is necessary for keeping it alive and communicating it to all "who enter the double
doors."
Using Facts and Objective Data as Support
• HR professionals will need to have tangible evidence to back up opinions and
recommendations.
• An HR Professional needs to be fluent in measuring strategic outcomes that they anticipate
to be influential, have credibility, and build solid cases for their recommendations.
Contribute to Measuring Strategic Success
• Human capital measurement
o Productivity
o Employee Attitudes
o Employee capability and capacity
o Human Capital investment
o Leadership and management
o Total rewards
o Compliance and safety
o Employee relations
o Job recruitment
o Job creation
o Workforce retention
o Workforce profile
Developing the HR Strategy
• HR needs to develop a strategy that is aligned with the capabilities needed to implement
the organization's overall strategy.
 • HR must shift it is focus from employees to one of strategy, and it needs to commit to
diverting a greater share of its resources from developing the entire workforce to
developing strategic talent.
• "assess the big picture"
The HR Strategic Process
1. Assess the big picture
a. Gain an understanding of the organizational context and the previous strategic plans.
b. Identify what goals will involve HR processes and support.
2. Perform a SWOT analysis
3. HR's mission and vision statements need to be either created or reviewed.
a. They need to reflect and fit into the organization's overall strategies.
4. Conduct a detailed HR analysis, which would include a thorough review of the current
systems and processes in place.
a. Goal in this phase is to identify gaps that may exist, and the current future needs.
b. Addressing these gaps to align with the organizational direction is the crux of the HR
strategy.
5. Determine what are the critical people issues
a. Future talent needs and existing workforce will be compared.
b. Gaps are considered and addressed with a strategic plan of action.
6. Develop HR's own goals, metrics, consequences, and solutions.
a. Specific actions HR will take and how they will be measured occur.
7. Developing an implementation and evaluation plan is the last step.
a. HR will provide a clear direction on the resources, risks, timing, and support that each
of their goals and initiatives will require.
b. Gantt chart may be used as additional support for budget requests.
Organizational Effectiveness & Development: Part I
Monday, March 2, 2020
9:52 AM
Functional Area 7- Organizational Effectiveness & Development
• OE&D concerns overall structure and functionality of the organization, and involves
measurement of long and short-term effectiveness and growth of people and processes,
and implementation of necessary organizational change initiatives.
• OE&D objectives are to change beliefs, attitudes, values, culture, and structure of an
organization for adaptation to new technologies, markets, and challenges.
OED Process
• Based on an action research model that begins with an identified problem or need for
change, then proceeds with:
1. Assessment
2. Planning the intervention
3. Implementing the intervention
4. Gathering data to evaluate the intervention
5. Determining whether satisfactory progress has been made, or whether there's need
for further intervention.
 • OED process begins when an organization recognizes that a problem exists that impacts
the mission or culture of the organization, and change is desired. OR:
o When a leadership had a vision of a better way and wants to improve the
organization.
• Once a decision is made to change the situation, assessment occurs in one or more of the
following:
o Documentation review
o Organizational sensing
o Focus groups
o Interviewing
o Surveying
• After the situation is assessed, defined, and understood, the next step is to plan an
intervention, which could be through one of more the following:
o T&D
o Team interventions
o Structural interventions
o Individual interventions
o (e.g. Team building for management or employees establishing and changing teams)
• During/after intervention implementation, data gathering is determined by the change
goals.
o This data is used to determine the effectiveness of the intervention.
o The decision-makers will then determine whether the intervention met its goals.
OED Strategies
• There are three different strategies that are not mutually exclusive, but can concurrently
be used to bring about systematic change:
o The Behavioral Strategy: Talent Development
 Takes a T&D approach
 Based on premise that employee learning would bring about organizational
change needed.
o The Technical Strategy: Performance Improvement
 Takes a continuous improvement approach
 Based on premise that processes in the areas of customer focus, product and
service delivery, support, and supplier and partnering can be improved.
 Strategy maintains that technology can be continuously updated and aligned
with the processes of production and service to make the work more efficient
and effective.
o The Structural Strategy: Organizational Design
 Premise is that organization structure and design should be aligned (or
realigned) consisted with the vision, direction, mission, or goals of the
organization.
 Will incorporate changes in the org chart.
 EE's, units, divisions, and departments can be realigned to optimize resources.
• All three strategies lead to improved quality and performance.
OED Benefits
 • OED is the practice of planned, systematic change in the beliefs, attitudes, and values of
EE's for individual and company growth.
• Purpose of OED is to enable an organization to better respond and adapt to
industry/market changes and technological advances.
• Five benefits of OED:
o Continuous Improvement: OED process creates a continuous cycle of improvement
whereby strategies are planned, implemented, evaluated, improved, and monitored.
 Proactive approach that embraces change.
o Increased communication: Goal is to align all employees to shared company goals and
values.
 Leads to increased understanding of the need for change within the
organization.
 Open across all levels of the organization, and feedback is recurrently shared for
improvement.
o Employee Development: Stems from constant industry and market changes.
 Requires an organization to regularly enhance EE skills to meet evolving market
requirements (achieved through programs of learning/training,
skills/competency enhancement, and work process improvements.
o Product and service enhancement
 Innovation is achieved through EE development; focuses on rewarding
successes and boosting motivation and morale.
 OED increases product innovation by using competitive analysis, market
research, and consumer expectations and preferences.
o Increased profits
 Efficiency and profits are increased through innovation and productivity.
 EE satisfaction is increased from OED alignment of objectives and focus on
development.
• Agile companies had leaders who did the following:
o Actively build seasoned, diverse leaders and management team: Leaders ensure
managers up and down the organization are fully accountable, and have the right
competencies to handle a diverse set of circumstances.
o Speed up decision-making: Establish culture of making critical decisions quickly,
always ensuring those decisions are tuned to market conditions.
o Prioritize strategic decisions: Distinguish between the decisions that affect everyday
operations and the bigger decisions that concern the company's strategic direction.
o Prepare their ecosystems to act quickly: Arm their business ecosystems with their
resources, information, and tools to take decisive, well orchestrated action, and to
quickly measure results, correcting the course when needed.
o Invest in and make more use of data and analytics to run the business: Leaders
understand the competitive value of deeper insights and know how to mine many
sources of data.
Opportunities for OED
• Examples of getting along with less over the long term:
 o Diminished capacity, capability, and agility: Lack of proper staffing can influence a
company's cost structure, cash flow, ability to deliver goods and services, and ability
to remain competitive.
o Misaligned organizational structure: Structural gaps can occur when companies
eliminate jobs without eliminating the work, forcing EE's to take on additional
responsibilities.
 This can create problems across all levels of an organization.
o Broken business processes: Failing to address critical gaps in business processes can
cause a risk for losing core efficiencies of a company (main driver of revenue
sustainability).
o Declining workforce engagement: Doing more with less can also damage EE morale.
Workers are juggling additional responsibilities, working longer hours, missing family
time, performing jobs that are outside of their pay grade (+/-).
• Organizations need to realign their critical elements to fit new economic realities without
diminishing their core capabilities and competitive differentiation.
HR's Role in OED
• HR's early involvement in organizational changes can facilitate improvement of
understanding of change and communication between management and non-
management EE's. Positive outcomes of communication include:
o Identification and mitigation of potential risks
o Increased EE buy-in and satisfaction
o Increased trust between management and non-managerial EE's.
o Identification of needed change-related training initiatives to improve EE skills and
proficiency.
o Increased leadership cohesiveness
• HR professionals must focus on the following:
o Increase focus on development and engagement of highly professional talented and
high potential EE's who possess deep expertise.
o Take responsibility to educate line management and help them acquire skills to be
more proactive in managing and coaching talent.
o Become skilled in OD and change management required to effectively implement
enhanced org structures.
o Develop superior communication and situational leadership skills, motivation, energy,
and learning ability.
o Can recognize and respect cultural differences; reconciling issues cultural diversity
creates.
o Integrate workforce planning process with career planning and EE development.
o Interact with IT to produce accurate models for use in planning and managing the
workforce.
o Use creative development tools such as mobile technologies for JIT learning.
Organizational Gap Development
• OED should be integrated into the organization's daily operations.
Assessments and Targets
• Identifying an organizational gap requires isolating the area of interest first.
 • Next, identify benchmark or industry standard for the skill.
Change Readiness
• Developing and implementing change programs should follow the articulation of specific
needs.
• Implementation plans should follow these steps:
1. Document goals and specific actions required for achievement
2. Meet with EE's to discuss changes, and the vision that requires those changes.
3. Solicit EE support and participate in the change process.
4. Measure results.
• Organizational changes should always be consistent with the employer's strategic plan.
• There should always be a link between the change and the organizational strategy.
Cultural Assessment
• Greatest need for cultural assessment comes in the wake of mergers and acquisitions
(M&A).
• Expect conflicts in policy, management style, and "the way things are done around here."
Implementing OED Initiatives
• When correctly assessed, plans for intervention can be built and then implemented.
OED Initiatives
• OED should be integrated into the organization's daily operations.
• One of the simplest tools OED practitioners use is ADDIE, which is an instructional systems
design framework that many instructional designers and training developers use to develop
courses. Involves the following:
o Analysis
o Design
o Development
o Implementation
o Evaluation
• OED initiatives often involve transformational change, including efficiency and
effectiveness initiatives, organizational restructurings, organizational capabilities
development, rebuilding trust, and culture change.
Workforce Support of OED Initiatives
• Getting EE buy-in is critical to support an organization's OED initiatives
OED Tools
• Team Building
o Achieve state where individual team members trust one another.
o How the supervisor or manager treats each EE will influence how likely there will be a
cohesiveness to the group.
o Progressive discipline is sometimes needed to eliminate bad behavior before the
group is willing to be a team.
• Group Decision-Making
o Type of participatory process in which multiple individuals acting collectively analyze
problems or situations, consider and evaluate alternative courses of action, and
select among the alternatives a solution(s).
o HOWEVER, there is a difference between teams and groups:
  Group has a definite leader, and a team has shared leadership roles.
 Members of a group have individual accountability; team has both individual
and collective accountability.
 Group measures effectiveness indirectly; team measures performance directly
through their work product.
 Groups discuss, decides, and delegates; team discuss, decides, and does real
work.
o Several types of group decision-making methods:
 Brainstorming: Freewheeling idea generation.
 Dialectical inquiry: Opposing groups debate pros and cons of selected solutions
or groups.
 Nominal group technique: Structured decision-making process in which group
members are required to compose a comprehensive list of their ideas or
proposed alternatives in writing.
 Delphi technique: Group members are in different remote locations, and the
group develops successive rounds of ideas, evaluation, refinement, and choices.
• Diversity Programs
o Striving to increase workplace diversity is a good business decision, especially since it
can increase financial returns.
o Non-homogenous teams are smarter (different ideas challenge your brain to
overcome stale ways of thinking).
• Quality Initiatives
o What are some of the consequences of HR publishing incorrect information about
company programs just before open enrollment?
• Systems Theory
o Way of analyzing and thinking about organizations
o Puts forth premise that organizations are made up of numerous component
subsystems that must worker together in harmony for the larger system to succeed.
o Stated that organizational success relies on synergy, interrelations, and
interdependence between different subsystems.
o Alternative approach to understanding, managing, and planning organizations.
o Can provide a fresh perspective for ER initiatives.
• Quality Standards
o ISO (International Organization for Standardization) has now published four standards
of human resource management
o The standards are as follows:
 ISO 30400 (HRM- Terminology): Provides common understanding of
fundamental terms used in HRM standards.
 ISO 30405 (HRM- Guidelines on recruitment): Provides guidance on effective
recruitment process and procedures. Designed for anyone involved in
recruiting.
 ISO 30408 (HRM- Guidelines on human governance): Provides guidelines to
create an effective human governance system that can respond effectively to
organizational and operational needs.
 • Can foster greater collaboration across all stakeholders, anticipate and
manage risks in HR, and develop a company culture that is aligned with its
values.
 ISO 30409 (HRM- Workforce planning): Helps organizations respond more
effectively to current and projected requirements for staffing.
• Quality control tools:
o Cause and effect diagram: Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram
o Check sheet: Chart of event/occurrence by date or time with stroke tally of times an
event happened.
o Control chart: Plot of quality conformance at times throughout the day.
o Histogram: Column chart showing frequency/intervals on Y, and event being
measured on the X axis.
o Pareto chart: Column chart showing types of quality problems on the X, and
frequency of occurrence on the Y.
o Scatter diagram: Graph showing plot of individual quality results using any two
variables. Plot points can be used to determine slope of a trend.
o Stratification: Flow/run chart.
• Theory of Constraints
o "A chain is no stronger than a link"
o Quality depends on the weakest point in the process, and failures can most often be
traced back to the single point that constrains the quality results.
• Six Sigma
o Variation in a process creates waste and errors (non-value added).
o Sigma refers to a scale of measurement of quality in process, such as manufacturing.
o Equates to just under 3.4 defects per million opportunities.
HR's Role in Implementation
• HR can help in OED by training managers and employees how the process will work, what
the changes will be, and what expectations they should have for results.
Communicating OED Changes
• Communication is relating the objectives of the organizational redesign to the
organization's strategies and tactical plans.
• EE's need to understand how they will fit into the new organization, the new process, or
the new work assignment.
Measuring Organizational Effectiveness and Development
1. The goal or objective.
2. Measurement
1. Lagging Indicators: Confirm performance or lack of performance; measure results of
past actions.
2. Leading Indicators: These predict performance; measure actions that will predict
future organizational effectiveness.
Demonstrating Value
• Gather the results you have measured and show how your performance has met or
exceeded the goals you set.
Cultural Assessment
 • One of the most well-known tools is the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument
(OACI) developed by Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn. There are two key dimensions to the
39 organizational effectiveness indicators:
o Internal focus and integration versus external focus and differentiation.
o Stability and control versus flexibility and discretion.
• Four culture types emerged from these studies:
o Clan culture: Similar to a large family where people have a lot in common. The
organization is held together by loyalty and tradition.
o Adhocracy Culture: Creative working environment where employees take risks.
o Market culture: Results-oriented culture emphasizing finishing work and getting
things done.
o Hierarchy culture: Formal, structured environment. Procedures decide what people
do, and formal rules and policy keep the organization together (CDCR for example).
Workforce Management: Part I
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
2:11 PM
Workforce Management
• Workforce management refers to HR practices and initiatives that allow the organization to
meet its talent needs (Workforce and succession planning) and close critical gaps in
competencies.
• Development, productivity, staffing, and effectiveness initiatives will be core functions of
HR's responsibility within workforce management.
Organizational Workforce Requirements
• Organizational staffing needs expand and contract with the level of organizational
productivity requirements.
Workforce Requirements
• Forecasting: Identifying job openings before they exist.
• Best performed with aid of operations managers who will be supervising the new positions;
managers are able to convert workloads into staff requirements.
• FTE (Full-Time Equivalent Required) = Total Functional Workload / Workload Handled by
One Person
Organizational Structure
• HR professionals need to be familiar with organizational structures, so they can act as a
guide for management to in selecting and determining which structure would be best to
gain the best performance.
• Six types of organizational structures:
o Departmental
o Chain of command
o Span of control
o Work Specialization
o Formalized
o Centralized or Decentralized
o Matrix
Restructuring
• Corporate restructuring: Act of restructuring the structures of an organization for the
purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized.
• Divesting: Selling off portions; usually for the purpose of reducing debt or operations.
• White knight: A major investor takes over the targeted organization to avoid a hostile
takeover attempt.
Can quickly reduce financial losses and simultaneously reduce the tensions between major
stakeholders (Shareholders0 and the overriding condition prompting.
Drivers of Restructuring
• Divestiture and M&As
Forms of Restructuring
• There are seven different forms of restructuring:
o Downsizing
 Usually occurs when production demand drops
 AKA layoff, rightsizing, smart-sizing, bad luck
 Workforce is usually impacted with layoffs
o Divestiture
 When an organization gives part of their unregulated portion of its business to
allow other companies to compete for customer money.
• Unbundling occurs when restructuring is done voluntarily.
o Redistribution of Decision-Making Authority
 Organizations can either convert to a centralized or decentralized structure.
o Extended Organization
 Merging various brands for customer convenience.
o Divestiture
 Refocus, rethink, and restructure their core business capabilities with an
ultimate goal to be leaner and more cost effective.
 Reviewing employment policies, severance packages, and employees
classifications for increased or decreased responsibilities are examples of
minimizing the disruption of operations and EE's.
• M&As
o Intended to enhance an organization by accessing market share or increasing assets.
o HR needs to be involved for possible impacts to culture blending, job function
redundancies, and comparison of benefits/compensation/job titles.
o M&A Process has four basic phases:
 Preparation: Ascertain whether HR staff have necessary knowledge, strategic
planning, and project management skills for managing transition
 Due Diligence Production: Includes scrutinizing financials and many other risks
associated with HR.
1. Research and investigation are needed on proposed M&A organization to
determine technology differences, structural and talent risks, and cultural
issues that will arise.
2. Compliance, corporate governance, and legal claims/lawsuit information is
reviewed and understood at this phase.
  Integration Planning: Good strategic planning process resulting in goals and
objectives is necessary in this phase.
1. Change management plan associated with a culture blending process,
communication strategies, and consolidation activities occurs during this
phase.
 Implementation, Measurement, and Monitoring Results
1. HR plays a vital role in monitoring the pulse and mood, assisting with
workforces that have blended successfully, and helping to troubleshoot
new issues that may have occurred during integration.
2. EE's are known as the implementers of changes to enable an organization
to realize goals of the merger.
3. Creating metrics and milestones that measure the intended results the
organization set out to achieve, with respect to the people related value
of the deal is the last phase for HR.
o Transition Tactics
 Having a clear vision and consistent frequent communication about
organizational transition is vital.
 The best transition tactics revolve around trust and communication.
 Leadership groups must move forward together, fully aligned, and "owning" the
strategic blueprint of the newly created vision in sharing its messages.
o Downsizing
 The act of reducing the size of the workforce.
 To mitigate the impact, some employers have offered cash payouts (severance)
based on the length of service and/or retirement qualification enhancements.
Organizational Interventions
• Science of organizational development can be used to help solve problems with
organizations through various interventions:
o Team building
o Creating common values
o Creating a vision
o Creating a specific role for each organizational segment
o Facilitating problem solving sessions focused on organizational structure
Workforce Planning
• Based on the notion that you want a balance between the work to be done and the
workers available to do it.
Workforce Planning Process
• Approaches will all boil down to one thing: Analyzing the gap between what you estimate
will be the staffing requirement, and the staff currently available to meet that requirement.
Supply Analysis
• Strategic Evaluation of supply chain options (e.g. sourcing alternatives, plant and
warehouse locations).
Trend & Ratio Analysis Projections
• Ratio Analysis: Compares current results, but always at a point in time.
 • Trend Analysis: Compares historical analysis with current results, and identifies what may
happen in the future (forecasting).
Turnover Analysis
• Identifying reasons that EE's are leaving provides data needed to analyze trends and
identify potential problems within the organization.
• If supervisors are causing high resignation rates, it may be appropriate to train them, or
take some other action to reduce the rate at which their subordinates are leaving.
Flow Analysis
• Involve analysis of data, production line movement, or order processing.
• How processes operate and flows of products, data, or other items go through those
processes are the objectives of this type of monitoring.
Demand Analysis
• Determines what customers, clients, or patrons will want in the future.
Judgmental Forecasts
• Projections based on subjective inputs. Often used when there is a short time to draw a
conclusion; or when data is outdated or unavailable.
Statistical Forecasts
• Approaches to analysis use mathematical formulas to identify patterns and trends.

Workforce Management: Part II

Wednesday, March 4, 2020
9:53 AM
Gap Analysis
• Measuring the distance of where you are and where you want to be.
Prioritizing the Gaps
1. Identify gaps.
2. Determine relevant importance of each portion of the results that need attention.
Defining Tactical Objectives
• AKA short-term action plans since they break down bigger-picture goals and strategies into
narrower, actionable tasks.
Solution Analysis
• Identifying solutions comes next after the problem has been identified.
• Select from a surviving list of criteria requirements.
• Regression analysis can help decide the best solution.
The Staffing Plan
• It is possible to begin the process of determining quantity of EE's needed after a list of
organizational objectives is determined.
Statement of Purpose
• Purpose of staffing plan should be simply stated.
• Staffing involves activities associated filling job openings
Stakeholders
• Considered as someone who has something at risk id the job openings are not filled with
qualified individuals at the proper time.
 • Not all stakeholders will have the same level of interest or amount of risk involved.
• HR department's reputation will rise or fall depending on how well it develops the staffing
plan, and then implements its actions.
Activities and Tasks
• Some of the activities found in staffing plans are as follows:
o Identify the organizational goals needing EE support.
o Identify quantity of FTE employees each goal will need.
o Specify KSAs required for each position
o Identify candidate sources, considering diversity efforts, and KSA requirements.
o Solicit job applications or resumes for qualified candidates.
o Screen candidates for qualifications
o Select candidates who likely "fit best" into the job requirements
o Forward candidate records to selecting manager (Hiring manager) for consideration
o Schedule interviews with hiring manager and/or others in the department.
o Administer any other screening device/step such as written tests or skill
demonstrations.
o Make employment selection decision.
o Follow up months later to assess the success of the employment selection.
o Make any procedural adjustments for the future based on that assessment.
Team Members
• Staffing processes involve multiple individuals in organizations of any size.
• Smaller organizations will have Generalists who handle multiple functions.
Resources
• Staffing resources include all people, assets, and funding needed to successfully place
qualified into the job openings.
• Organizations need to distinguish themselves from the competition to be successful in
attracting desired staff.
• Succession plans help identify who is "Ready Now" for promotion, who is capable for lateral
transfer, and who still needs additional training or experience.
• Succession plans normally applies to executive ranks, but can also help determine which
employees are available for future job openings based on KSAs.
• External resources can include job boards, employment groups, state rehabilitation
services, and job fairs, to name a few.
Communication Plan
• Notify employees and people outside the organization of the types of incumbents to be
hired and the type of skill sets required.
Continuous Improvement
• Staffing should be the focus of continuous improvement efforts
• AKA Kaizen (Japanese)- making frequent assessments of performance and then setting new
improvement goals, will result in substantial performance improvement.
Employee Development
• EE development programs provide EE's with opportunities to learn new knowledge and
skills, preparing them for future responsibilities and job changes, and increasing their
capacity to perform their current jobs.
 o Job rotation
o Job enlargement
o Job enrichment
o Apprenticeship program that relates to skills training
o Higher education tuition reimbursement programs
o Well ness training
o Stress management
o Work-life balance
Development of Employees
• EE development is a staffing effort that can lower overall costs and improve morale in the
workforce.
Talent management
• Talent management involves all the HR strategies and processes that are involved in
attracting, developing, engaging, and retaining the KSAs of the workforce to meet the
organization's needs.
• The goal is to manage the HR initiatives that directly result in EE productivity.
Talent Pools
• Creating and maintaining current skills inventories allow employers to develop succession
plans based current employee skills.
• Employers should take steps to ensure EE's can keep their own skills inventory current and
updated.
Talent Management Strategies
• Knowing who in advance has the KSAs to do the job, plus the interest and willingness, will
accelerate placement efforts.
Addressing the Changing Needs of Employees
• Life happens, and HR professionals need to know how to meander through ongoing
adjustment requests.
Flexible Staffing
• Telecommuting is an alternative to traditional staffing where everyone reported to a given
work location every day.
• Other types of flexible staffing options include the following:
o Job Sharing: Employment technique that offers two or more workers the opportunity
to collectively constitute one FTE EE.
 Each EE will require the employer's full SS and Medicare contributions.
o Shortened workweeks: 4/10s or 9/8/80s
o Phased retirement: Allows an individual to take partial retirement while continuing to
work a reduced schedule.
Alternative staffing
• Types of options alternative to the FTE 40-hour workweek:
o Project employees: People who are recruited and placed on the payroll with the
understanding that their employment will be terminated once the project is
completed.
 Contract labor: Refers to people who are hired for a specific period of time.
Folks can come off the payroll whether the project has concluded.
o Temporary employees: Usually popular with employment agencies; can be used on
production lines, accounting departments, and any other portion of an organization
experiencing a workload that cannot be handled by permanent staff.
o Payrolling: Used when you need to adjust to seasonal fluctuations, fill a vacancy while
searching for a permanent replacement, bridge gap in personnel, or use interns for
that set period of time.
 When a job needs to be done and the organization doesn't want to hire
someone on it's own payroll.
 Used for single or small groups of EE's.
o EE Leasing through a professional employer organization (PEO): Process of moving
EE's to another company's payroll as a service for a client organization.
 Provide payroll tax services, tax tracking and depositing, retirement program
management, health care benefit program management, and even EE
counseling and support services.
 EE's usually become the EE's of both organizations.
o Outsourcing and managed service providers (MSPs): Outsourcing is shifting a
workload through a contract with another employer organization.
 MSPs offer to manage functions as part of a strategic decision to move
operations or support functions out of an employment organization to a vendor
that can perform tasks less expensively.
o Temp-to-lease programs: When a need exists for employees on a seasonal basis, or
for positions that last longer than a few days or weeks.
 Client organizations pay the EE a fee, in addition to the pay received by the
worker assigned to the client.
o Rehires and transfers: Rehired workers are already trained and can be productive
immediately when workloads rise unexpectedly.
 Transfers from other portions of the organization have the advantage of already
knowing company culture, and can be quicker in producing work.
o Relocation: Moving workers from one location to another outside the normal
commute radius requires finding them new living quarters (which can be done on a
temporary or permanent basis).
 Permanent relocations can involve workers buying and selling homes.
• Home purchase/lease escape fees: Employers can pay a cancelling fee of
employee when achieving a higher value of selling a house.
• Real estate processing fees: Relocating fees can be escrow fees and buying
real property.
• Mortgage subsidy: It can be sometimes necessary for employers to pay a
portion or all the increased mortgage rate to get an employee to accept a
relocation.
• Packing/shipping/unpacking: Paying the bill for a moving company to
pack, ship, and unpack at the destination is another burden to relieve for
employees.
 • Funds for taxes on increased taxable income: Employers compute a "tax
obligation roll up" and pay that to an employee as a lump sum as
withholdings.
o Work-life balance: Meaningful daily achievement and enjoyment in four life
quadrants: Work, family, friends, and self.
Measuring Talent Management Effectiveness
• Talent management can be defined as putting people in the right positions at the right
time, and keeping them there.
• Basic measurements organizations should consider on HCI (ROI):
o Overall talent retention rate
o Cost to hire talent
o Revenue per full-time employee
o Time it takes to hire talent
o Time to full productivity per full-time employee
o Diversity statistics
o Impact of voluntary and involuntary employee loss rates on revenue
o Average tenure of new hires
o Number of senior positions and the depth of bench strength
o Number of promotions made from within the organization
Knowledge Management
• Knowledge management is a term that relates to the retention and distribution of
organizational knowledge.
• It is the efficient process of capturing, developing, sharing, and handling of information or
resources within a business.
• It's focus is on the management of internal knowledge held by incumbents as a strategic
asset and the mentorship in sharing this knowledge.
Managing Organizational Knowledge
• In managing organizational knowledge, organizations identify their collective knowledge to
compete, including the creation, storage/retrieval, transfer, and application of knowledge
that is pertinent to conducting business. AKA knowledge assets.
Knowledge Management Systems
• The ultimate goal of utilizing new technologies is to introduce a standardized process to
promote a more efficient and effective glow of information and knowledge throughout the
organization.
Knowledge Management Process
• Process of creating, sharing, using, and managing the information and knowledge within an
organization.
Use of Knowledge Management Systems
• An example of KM system is a central database that stores customer data that is used for
sales and marketing analytics.
Strategies for Effective Knowledge Management Systems
• The following internal and external strategies could help to ensure effective
implementation and management of KM systems.
• Internal Strategies:
 o Identify business challenges: related to knowledge management and then capturing
essential pieces of knowledge; focus on knowledge that is important and reasonable
to maintain.
o Obtain executive support: Executives in the organization need to be on board with
supporting management initiatives from both a strategic perspective and a financial
perspective.
o Be patient: Managing knowledge is a difficult task with no hard-and-fast rules.
o Get buy-in and support from the users: Objective is to implement the system that
users willfully use, not one that is technically sound but remains underutilized
because of a lack of buy-in from potential users.
o Celebrate small wins: Use a "control tower" approach, where a specific function is
mandated to develop a knowledge management action plan, such as AP.
o Manage EE Behavior: Project leaders should champion changes in KM practices, and
ensure that technology provides added value.
• External Strategies
o Attend KM-oriented training sessions and conferences: Attending training sessions
and discussing KM problems and best practices with others will serve as an
introduction to the challenges.
o Establish a peer network: Establish forums where colleagues can demonstrate the
latest best practices.
o Benchmark your KM practices: Benchmark against competitors to identify areas of
strength and weakness.
o Hire a KM expert: KM experts provide credibility to the organization's KM efforts
especially to stakeholders.
Social Sharing of Knowledge
• Knowledge sharing via enterprise social media (ESN) is increasingly being introduced into
large organizations.
• Focuses on the use of online social media networks among the EE's who share the same
roles and responsibilities, especially in larger organizations, such as matrix positions.
Employee & Labor Relations: Part I
Saturday, March 7, 2020
9:55 AM
Functional Area 9- Employee & Labor Relations
• Employee and Labor Relations refers to any dealings between the organization and its
employees regarding the terms and conditions of employment.
• HR has had responsibility for employee management compliance, and is also in strategic
issues of EE resource management.
The Employment Relationship
• An employee is a person in the service of another under any contract or hire, express or
implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct
the EE in the material details of how work is to be performed.
Toward Employee Relations
• Organizational culture is defined by the type of EE relations programs that exist.
 • Culture is defined by the way an organization treats its employees, customers, and others;
and influenced by the way power is distributed within the organization and the amount of
power EE's sense they have.
Employer & EE Rights
• Under US laws, both employers and EE's have rights related to their relationship.
Employer Rights Under the Law
• Before unions were formed, employers used to be able to treat EE's in any way they
wanted; now unions accomplished better treatment of workers and fought for EE benefits
and wages.
• EEO is a prime example where Employers can no longer make decisions based on a
person's race, religion, sex, or national origin (and more, of course).
• Employers can do virtually anything they want so long as it does not violate law or public
policy (includes covenant of good faith and fair dealing). All workers are also due fair
treatment as a constant expectation.
Intellectual Property
• The general rule is employers own rights to work-related copyrights, patents, and
trademarks developed by EE's even if the work was done on the EE's own time.
• Employers are ordinarily the owners of such work products by their EE's.
Employee Rights Under the Law
• Refer to Chapter 3 on a list of all labor laws pertaining to EE rights.
• EE's are usually given the "Benefit of the doubt" when it comes to disciplinary treatment, or
complaint against the employer.
• Employment at-will: Form of employment relationship that has been amended over the
years.
International Human Rights and Labor Standards
• International Labor Organization: Created in 1919 and later adopted by the United Nations
as a component of that international body.
• The 4 key principles are as follows:
o Freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective
bargaining
o Elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor
o Effective abolition of child labor
o Elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
• Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)
o Formed in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.
o OECD published hundreds of titles annually on a variety of subjects such as
agriculture, scientific research, capital markets, tax structures, energy resources,
lumber, air pollution, educational development, and development assistance.
• World Trade Organization (WTO)
o Created in 1995 to focus on global rules of trade between nations.
o Ensures that trade flows as smoothly, predictably, and freely as possible. (161
countries)
Treaties and Trade Agreements
 • Treaties are formal contracts between nations that must be approved by the US Senate
before they become binding on the government.
• Trade agreements are generally administrative arrangements generally made by the
executive branch of the government, and do not require approval of the US Senate.
Relevant Employment Laws:
• Davis-Bacon Act of 1931
• Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986
• Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988
• Equal Pay Act of 1963
• Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003
• Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970
• Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
• Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
• Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
• Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 (Taft-Hartley Act)
• Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (Landrum-Griffith Act)
• National Labor Relations Act of 1935
• Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932
• Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947
• Railway Labor Act of 1926
• Service Contract Act of 1965
• Federal Insurance Contributions Act of 1935 (Social Security Act)
• Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994
• Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974
• Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 (amended by Workforce Investment Act of 1998)
• Walsh-Healey Act of 1936 (Public Contracts Act)
• Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII)
• Civil Rights Act of 1991
• Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988
• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
• Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
• Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978
• Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures of 1976
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
• Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988

• Data privacy
o Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
o Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)
o Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA)
o Data breach notification requirements
• Separation of employment
o Voluntary forms of separation
 Resignation
  Retirement
 Job Abandonment
o Involuntary forms of resignation
 Death
 Discharge
 Layoff/downsizing
 Incapacitation
Employment Contracts
• Employment relationships can exist under a contract or without a contract (oral or written)
• Employers will be obligated for certain compensation, and employees will be obligated for
certain work.
• Usually, there is a requirement for a "just cause" before an employer can dismiss a
contractual EE.
• Written employment contracts will typically contain several sections, such as:
o Job description: List duties and responsibilities
o Statement of Authority: Details expenditure limits, hiring authority, what conditions
require approval of the Board of Directors or other authority.
o Agreement length: Identified the beginning and ending dates of the contract.
o Performance Requirements: Documents performance requirements for compensation
increases or bonuses.
o Compensation & Benefits: Details the base rate of pay, pay calculation (hourly, salary,
commission), how increases will be achieved, how compensation will be paid, perks,
pension, etc.
o Other important issues: Can include agreements about who owns copyrights and
patent rights to things produced by the employee during the contract period.
o Termination provisions: Can include personal behavior and ethics requirements and
other reasons or "causes" for separating the EE from the organization.
Oral Employment Contracts
• Oral employment contracts can be expressly made, made by mistake, and still be valid and
enforceable, much to the dismay of employers who still fall into those traps.
• Can be created in some unusual circumstances .
At-Will Employment
• Employment at-will: Absent express agreement to the contrary, employment was for an
indefinite time and could be terminated by either party, for any reason, or no reason at all.
• Employers must justify their decisions to end the employment relationship with someone.
• Employment at will only exists in the absence of a contract that details the employment
agreement between the employer and EE.
• American courts have been instrumental in identifying conditions under which employers
may not arbitrarily discharge people, even if they are at-will EE's. Restrictions include:
o Civil service rules
o Constitutional protections
o Protections against employment discrimination
o Whistle blowing protections
Employee Recognition & Reward
 • The larger an organization grows, the greater the likelihood that its recognition programs
will be structured.
Forms of Rewards
• EE recognition can include service anniversary rewards (watches, clocks, plaques,
certificates, pins), employee-of-the-month awards (designated parking space, plaque or
bulletin board posting).
Recognition Systems
• Employee recognition systems can be either formal or informal.
• Formal recognition systems involve programs that are designed to address systemic
employee issues such as service awards, retirement awards, and employee of the month
awards.
• Informal recognition systems involve supervisor or manager spotlighting of employee
accomplishments at an employee meeting or supervisor acknowledgement of an employee
accomplishment by giving an extra PTO.
Recognition and Rewards in Global Organizations
• Cultural differences from one country to another mean the esteem placed on specific
rewards will also vary from country to country.
Feedback as Reward and Recognition
• Managers and supervisors who make it a habit to give thanks to EE's when it is truly
deserved will find that it is quiet the motivator.
Employee Communication
• Formal communication systems include an EE bulletin or monthly newsletter, and daily
intranet blog updates for company work sites.
• Informal communication systems can involve manager distribution of periodic emails
updating workers on specific happenings in the realm of EE relations.
• An HR manager's job is usually communicating safety accomplishments or production goal
achievements.
Including Managers and Supervisors
• Managers and supervisors are interested because they will have to implement the policies
that are issues.
• Special meetings are held for organizational leaders to learn and provide feedback to
senior management about what company policies and programs are working, and what are
not.
Third-Party Influences on EE Relations
• Third parties are involved in the process of conducting EE relationships.
Complex Labor Environments
• Third parties in employment relationships are usually government agents responsible for
enforcing legal compliance requirements having to do with things safety, child labor, EEO,
and workplace security.
Labor or Trade Unions
• Unions are groups of EE's designated to represent interests of those EE's through formal
negotiation process.
• Unions are also responsible for conducting grievances as EE representatives and protecting
against an Employer's failure to follow termination procedures.
Labor/Trade Union Strategies
• Having a strategy for supporting or avoiding union representation is worthwhile.
Increasing Formal Internationalization of Unions
• Many employer organizations are multinational that unions are forced intro the same
mode of operation.
Pressing for National and International Compliance
• It is incumbent upon employers who work with IU's to understand requirements of each
country in which they have represented EE's.
Implementing International Framework Agreements
• An international framework agreement (IFA) is an instrument negotiated between a
multinational enterprise and a Global Union Federation (GUF) to establish an ongoing
relationship between the parties, and ensure the company respects the same standards in
all the countries where it operates.
• Some mechanisms involved in trade union participation include specific actions by
management and worker representatives.
Forming Networks and Alliances
Employee & Labor Relations: Part II
Sunday, March 8, 2020
5:13 PM
Understanding Individual Labor or Trade Unions
• Each trade union is organized to assist the members it attracts.
• In the case of trade workers, journey-level individuals can work for any union-represented
employer.
• SEIU represents workers in health care and public service (like myself).
Managing the Union Relationship
• More focus nowadays is being placed on the cooperation between trade unions and
management.
• When given an active participant role, unions can become allies of employers.
Work Councils
• Originated in Germany in the 1920s
• Through work councils, workers are informed and consulted by management on the
progress of the business and any significant decision at a regional level that could affect
their employment or working conditions.
Work Council Structures
• Work councils are composed of an employer's body of workers, and are also union
representatives in many other countries.
• Can be structured once there are more than 5 employees in an organization.
• Senior management are not party to the work council.
Codetermination
• EE's are given seats on boards of directors and/or supervisory boards.
HR & Work Councils
• The National Labor Relations Act in the US prohibits "Company Unions," which is
sometimes a label pinned on work councils.
Collective Bargaining
• Negotiation involving how EE relations will be conducted in the employer organization;
results in a formal contract document or resolution of formal workplace practice and
procedures.
Contract Negotiation Process
• Negotiating a contract requires identifying subjects to be addressed by the agreement.
• There are eight steps in the negotiation process.
1. Prepare: Do your research ahead of time so that you and your opponent and you
know what you want from the negotiation.
2. Open: Let the other side know what you want, and let them tell you what they want.
3. Argue: Back up your case with evidence and uncover defects in your opponent's
argument.
4. Explore: Search for common ground and agreeable outcomes.
5. Signal: Show that you are ready for an agreement.
6. Package: Put together different acceptable options for both parties.
7. Close: Come to an agreement and finalize the negotiation
8. Sustain: Ensure that their side, and yours, follows through the negotiated agreement.
HR's Role in Contract Negotiation
• In some organizations, HR will have a designated department dedicated to Labor Relations.
Sometimes, the HR manager in smaller organizations will have the lone responsibility for
contract negotiations.
• Each component of a contract agreement (such as pay, health benefits, and bonuses) can
produce a total contract value.
• Assembling this data is the responsibility of the HR manager.
Contract Administration and Enforcement
• Many small employers work with union agreements such as operating engineers,
teamsters, and laborers.
• Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) and Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) are
written contracts between employer and unions.
• Regardless of the size of the employer, someone in the organization must be assigned the
responsibility for coordinating work through unions and ensuring the employer abides by
all the requirements of the union contract.
• "hiring Halls": Practice of notifying the union of a job opening and receiving a qualified
union member as the new hire designee.
• Large employers will have labor relations staff groups that are assigned responsibility for
day to day interactions with labor unions, along with carrying responsibility for contract
negotiations.
Handling Grievances
• EE grievances can pertain to any subject, but always indicate a feeling of upset or
discontent about something going on in the workplace, such as the way they are being
treated, organizational policies, and the big category of "fairness."
• In union-represented organizations, the union contract (MOU) will usually explain what
steps exist in the grievance procedure.
 • They are designed to permit union members the opportunity to formally protest
application of any contract provision.
• Here are the typical grievance-handling steps found in most organizations:
1. Written complaint: Employee describes in writing what is causing the upset or
discontent
2. Supervisor-level discussion: EE's supervisor (or another group's) supervisor will
discuss the complaint with the EE, reviewing the facts and reasons for the decision
that resulted in the complaint.
3. Management or HR-level discussion: If the supervisor or EE cannot agree, the next
discussion is with management or HR. The matter is settled here if an agreement is
reach.
4. Senior management: the final step is usually with a senior management official. It is
usually any other designated official who has authority to make nay adjustments or
decisions deemed appropriate in settling the grievance.
5. Mediation or arbitration: Contracts will usually specify whether arbitration will be
used to resolve union grievances; employers and unions will split the cost of hiring an
arbitrator.
When the EE Relationship Falters
• Sometimes, EE's and management do not see things in the same way; feelings get hurt, and
people do not feel like they are being treated fairly.
Preserving the Relationship at Difficult Times
• The worst thing that comes from a disagreement is the failure of a communication channel;
if parties cease to talk with one another, it is almost impossible to get back to a normal
working relationship.
Industrial Actions and Unfair Labor Practices
• Either management or union can initiate retaliatory action in the workplace as a response
to the other party's failure to agree at the bargaining table.
Industrial Actions
• Can be initiated by either employer or EE's, and almost always result from the breakdown
in the negotiation process.
• EE related industrial actions can include work slowdowns, work stoppage, and "sick" outs.
• Employer initiated industrial action usually involves lockouts.
Unfair Labor Practices
• NLRA states unfair labor practices can be blamed on either employers or labor unions.
• Complaints of unfair labor practices are formally filed with the National Labor Relations
Board.
• Injunction requests usually occur when striking union pickets block access to parking lots,
loading docks, or employee building entrances.
• HR professionals are usually responsible for monitoring activities in the workplace,
documenting behavior of individuals, and communicating messages from management and
unions to one another.
Managing Conflicts Between Employees
• EE conflicts are not always limited to union grievances or discrimination complaints.
• An HR Professional should play in managing conflicts within the employer organization.
 o Be a custodian of team alignment.
o Drive/monitor accountability.
o Help assess the team's conflict management behavior.
o Ensure the right capability set on teams.
o Work to make sure that teams are high performers.
Conflict Resolution Techniques
• Conflict resolution can be the difference between positive and negative outcomes.
• There are five steps in the conflict resolution process:
1. Affirm the relationship.
2. Seek to understand.
3. Seek to be understood.
4. Own responsibility by apologizing.
5. Seek agreement.
One-on-One Resolution
• A coach will facilitate one-on-one discussions to help the 2 people identify what they want,
and why it is important for the party to also get what they want.
Third-Party Resolution
• When something formal is required, mediation or arbitration is required.
• It is important that each party to the process agree to accept the outcome as binding.
• AAA and AMA are two sources for HR professionals when these services are necessary.
Agency Complaints and Litigation
• Internal complaints give an employer the opportunity to resolve issues with EE's before
they fester further and generate formal external agency complaints.
• External complaints are those filed with state or federal fair employment practices (EEOC
or US DOL WHD, or even OSHA).
• When a formal complaint is filed, it is a sign that the employer cannot speak with their own
EE about the issue.
• The employer will need to conduct an investigation to determine whether the complaint
has merit.
HR's Role in Complaints and Litigation
• HR professionals are usually the POC for employee complaints, and responsible for
conducting the investigation into the complaint's validity.
• It is up to HR professionals to make recommendations to upper management regarding the
outcome, and any actions that should be taken.
Workplace Retaliation
• Every category of federal law that deals with EE relations provides prohibitions against
employer retaliation for EE's availing themselves of the legal protections against
mistreatment.
Conducting Investigations
• Investigations can be helpful in a grievance-handling effort, and are essential in
determining the validity of discrimination complaints.
• Internal HR professionals are almost always given authority in state and federal law to
investigate on behalf of the employer.
• Whoever is designated as the investigator should normally follow these steps:
 1. Obtain a written complaint.
2. Conduct interviews.
3. Decide.
4. Give feedback.
Disciplining Employees
• The progressive discipline model is ones that has been used in American workplaces for
more than a century.
• It is written into many union contracts as a requirement to assure management treats its
members appropriately when problems arise.
• In small organizations, discipline and termination are handled without many written
procedures.
Warnings
• Warnings: First step in the progressive discipline process, and can be both verbal and
written; both are documented so the discipline history is recorded.
• Verbal warnings consist of informal counseling to ensure the employee understands
the consequences if the behavior is not properly addressed.
• Written warnings include official members or memos documenting the behavior or
concern, with necessary expectations outlines.
o The policy violated should be articulated in writing so the employee understands
why the warning is being issues.
o Include the "up to and including termination" verbiage

Escalating Corrective Actions

• It may be necessary to escalate more corrective actions if verbal and written warnings
do not address a behavior or performance concern.
• Organizations are responsible for ensuring their discipline policy outlines the various
levels of corrective action.
• It may be necessary to conduct a root cause analysis to determine whether additional
insight is needed to provide a better course of action.

Termination
• Termination: Final step in the progressive discipline process, and when an employee
is removed from their job. Usually occurs from poor performance, policy violations,
and behavioral issues.
• In some situations, terminated employees are given formal contracts known as
separation agreements.
Preventive Measures
• The best prevention is communication, and ensure the EE is clear about the specific
expectations you have for their performance.
• Make sure people understand their personal importance to the employer's success (This is
BS in some cases).
• It is only when expectations are not met that there are problems.
Providing Due Process
 • Due process is ensuring EE's receive all protections to which they are entitled, and what
contributed to the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing.
Constructive Discipline
• It is a positive outcome of the disciplinary process, and usually EE's understand why they
were disciplines, and treatment is fair within the circumstances.
HR's Role in Discipline
• HR professionals are the coaches for line managers and supervisors, and it is HR's
responsibility to track disciplinary cases, counsel managers on handling disciplinary
interviews, encourage EE's when they discuss their problems, and nudge all parties toward
a positive outcome.

Information Technology: Part I

Tuesday, March 10, 2020
8:29 PM
Technology Management
• Technology Management involves the use of existing, new, and emerging technologies to
support the HR function, and the development and implementation of policies and
procedures governing the use of technologies in the workplace.
• HRIS, ATS, self-service portals to company-specific information such as EE handbooks,
training programs, benefits--these form the backbone to having HR processes click along
seamlessly.
HR & Technology
• Technology in HR captures more information and makes that information accessible to a
variety of needs and people within an organization.
• HR's technology provides communication support.
HR Technology Use
• HR uses technology to allow more work to be accomplished with fewer resources and by
automating jobs and functions to allow greater accuracy and speed of processing or
providing information to stakeholders.
• Examples of technology are the following:
o E-Signing
o Mobile learning
o Intranet
o Gamification: technology offering an approach for enhancing learning
o Blogs
o Social Media
o Self-Service Systems
Information Management
• HR's information is highly confidential in the workforce and the organization.
HR in the Era of Big Data
• Big data refers to the large amount of dissimilar data such as images and figures, tables,
charts, and words.
• Data mining: Extracting data that serves their needs.
 o Collecting data: New data collection about how EE's can do their jobs can provide
process insights, possibly reducing errors and increasing productivity and efficiencies.
o Using Data Effectively: Data can be used to understand the motivation of EE's, their
engagement, and why they do what they do.
o Strategic Analysis: Mapping how information flows in organizations and how it
impacts the way rely on it to do their jobs.
HR Information Systems
• An HRIS is technology software that supports the functions of HR and is the workhorse of
administration for HR data to be gathered, stored, maintained, retrieved, analyzed, and
reported.
• HRIS offers the ability for increased efficiency and accuracy to be disseminated at a lower
cost.
HRIS Selection
• First step in selecting an HRIS is identifying all stakeholders, then performing a needs
analysis to determine what the features are needed for the stakeholders.
Build, Customize, or Outsource Development
• Organizations must consider whether the system will be developed internally by the
organization, or it will be an off-the-shelf system (such as PeopleSoft).
Integrated Solution or "Best Breed" Option
• A BoB is the "best of fit" solution for each functional area in HR.
• This system is limited to a specialty area (e.g. benefits, recruitment, EE retention).
Data Access
• Democratization: Not limited to HR, people can access as needed.
• This type of access brings both ethical and legal considerations, including the protection of
EE private information and it's dissemination.
Database Structure
• An HRIS Database, and it is a structure that stores information in an organized manner.
• Access to the information usually occurs through the following means:
o HR Portals: Customized entry point via the Intranet or internet for EE's and applicants
that allow them to access information, such as benefits enrollment.
o EE self-Service Websites: Associated with transactional functions such as updating
personal information, filing expense reports, and changing 401(k) selections.
o Manager Self-Service (MSS): Allows supervisory management to conduct HR-related
transactions such as performance appraisals, job descriptions, and attaining reports
or viewing information.
Data Protection
• Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is a crucial concern with HRIS since it's a high-
priority status in today's world to keep it from hacking.
• Breach of an HRIS could be drastic to an employer.
HRIS Implementation
• Most HRIS implementation techniques will take a project management approach; and take
a team of folks from IT professionals, IT consultants, and HR professionals to adhere to a
systematic framework over a period.
• The implementation steps of HRIS follow this order:
 o Assessing whether to flush out and determine the requirements.
o Identifying project parameters such as budget, technology, and time.
o Evaluating software packages against requirements and parameters.
o Gathering project task committee, stakeholders, and implementation group.
o Clarifying vendor requirements and putting out an RFP to vendors
o Screening RFPs
o Selecting the best vendor/software
The Importance of Systems Integration
• A systems integration approach that is thorough, looking at the entire process is more
worthwhile.
• There are two common approaches: waterfall or a big bang approach
Continuous Integration Approach
• With continuous integration, the HRIS components are integrated as they're developed
into mini-versions of the HRIS.
• Throughout the development, the HR functions can see the workings of what is created
and massage the development process.
Big Bang Approach
• The big bang approach allows for everything in the development process to be finished
before testing begins.
• This can be time-consuming and cause system failures.
Policies for Technology Use in the Workplace
• Technology use policies can work well when organizations balance security, compliance,
and privacy concerns.
• The key is ensuring policies are being updated to keep pace with the continuous growth of
new and changing technologies.
Developing Workplace Policies
• A policy is a broad statement that reflects an organization's philosophy, objectives, or
standards concerning a set of management or EE activities.
• Policies reflect the employer's EE relationship strategy.
• Policies are general in nature and are expressed through more specific procedures and
work rules.
• There are nine steps involved in developing workplace policies:
1. Identify the need for the policy.
2. Identify who will take lead or responsibility for this policy development.
3. Gather information.
4. Draft the policy.
5. Consult with stakeholders.
6. Finalize and approve policy.
7. Consider whether procedures will be required to implement the policy.
8. Implement the policy.
9. Monitor its success, and review and revise if necessary.
Developing EE Handbooks
• An EE handbook is a document that communicates organizational history, mission, values,
policies, procedures, and benefits.
 • Articulates "the way we do things around here"
• The steps for developing EE handbooks are like those involved in developing workplace
policies:
1. Review and make required revisions to the current company policies.
2. Create an outline of what to include in the EE handbook.
3. Create summarized versions of each policy and procedure.
4. Add each summary statement in appropriate sections according to the outline.
5. Review the entire handbook.
6. Provide a finalized version to legal counsel for review.
7. Select a means of publication
8. Distribute handbooks
9. Update, as necessary.
• Most organizations find it helpful to have their EE handbooks electronic (e.g. intranet).
• Allows updating to be more frequent, and acknowledgement from EE's that they are aware
of policy changes.
BYOD Policy
• Applies to EE use of personal devices for company purposes.
• While allowing EE's to use their own laptops, phones, tablets, etc. may be more cost
efficient, it can raise concerns of security and legal compliance.
• From an EE perspective, the largest concern is that BYOD leads to a loss of EE's privacy.
• On the organization's side, the largest concern is security.
• If non-exempt EE's are asked to use their own devices for work, the organization opens
itself up to exposure over FLSA; and state overtime and wage payments.
• Nonexempt workers can be able to respond to emails/text messages or to otherwise
engage in work activities outside their scheduled work hours.
Collaboration
• Technology vendors have created platforms have created platforms that allow employees
to collaborate more efficiently, such as programmers collaborating on coding.
Groupware
• Groupware is a specialized software application of a collaborative nature that facilitates
interaction between people, helping them work together.
Effective Collaboration Policies and Approaches
• Organizations have established practices that create greater effectiveness for these
collaborations.
• Legal disclaimers and the rights and responsibilities should also be considered in policies
that protect trade secrets and confidentiality.
Social Media
• Social media policies need to be aligned with the organization's ethical and cultural
expectations and its core values.
• They must reflect the organization's legal and reputational risks, too.
Effective Social Media Policies and Approaches for Personal Posting
• Types of personal posts that employers should be concerned with by their EE's are the
ones that disclose proprietary information, harass other EE's or customers, reflect poorly
on the organization, or are considered inappropriate comments.
 • There is a balance of restrictive and permissive aspects for personal postings.
Networking
• Social networking sites connect individuals with shared interests, regardless of their
geographical location.
Effective Networking Policies and Approaches
• Networking policies should protect the reputation of organization and outline expectations
of it's EE's, values, ethics.
Communications
• Policies and practices regarding communication in technology require a balance between
protecting the organization's proprietary information, its security, and its legal interest and
getting work done by the workforce.
Effective Communication Policies & Approaches
• Employers have discovered that the best approach to technology communication policies is
constantly reminding EE's of policies such as email monitoring and browsing histories.

HR in the Global Context: Part I

Sunday, March 15, 2020
12:13 PM
Functional Area 11: HR in the Global Context
• HR direction required to achieve organizational success and to create value for
stakeholders.
The Global Context
• Global interactions mean finding ways to place employer issues in a global context, while
abiding by the cultural and legal requirements of each country in which we operate.
Defining Globalization
• Globalization is the trend of increasing interaction between people on a worldwide scale
because of advances in transportation and communication technology.
Forces Shaping Globalization
• Factors contributing to globalization:
o International economic influences
o Environmental forces
o Political forces
o Global insecurity
o Refugee crisis
o Insecure investment trading markets
Three Precepts of Global Force Interconnectedness
• Three precepts of global force interconnectedness that become apparent:
o PEST factors can be fully understood only as global impacts
o Forces may be global, but impacts can be uniquely felt locally
o Distinguish between large-scale forces and trends, and more immediate events and
"trendy" phenomena.
Globalization in the 21st Century
 • HR professionals must consider thinking about international requirements nearby in terms
of off-shore manufacturing, importing rules and procedures, and exporting rules and
procedures.
• HR professionals must be able to address an aging workforce in developing countries and
the workforce in emerging world economies.
Shift from Developed to Emerging Economies
• This shift is anticipated to last through 2050.
The Diaspora
• Refers to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave its traditional
homeland, as well as the dispersal of such people and the ensuing developments in their
culture.
Demographic Dichotomy
• The workforce in emerging economies is becoming disproportionately young, while the
workforce in developed economies is rapidly aging.
Reverse Innovation
• New economies will have a greater influence over world economic events because they are
selling their innovations to markets in developed countries.
Global Recession and Global Warming
• Episodes of severe weather in the US, and authors predict negative impacts on the
southern US and positive impacts in some parts of the Pacific Northwest and New England
in terms of GDP.
Hyper-connectivity
• State of unified communications in which the traffic-handling capacity and bandwidth of a
network always exceed the demand.
• Evidenced by the increasing digital interconnection of people and things around the clock
from anywhere.
Achieving a Public-Private Balance
• The sum of surpluses between public and private financial sectors must be 0.
• The government sector includes federal, state, and local.
Measurability
• This functional area can be measured if you take the time to think about them.
Moving Work
• Outsourcing: Transfer of some work to organizations outside the employer's payroll.
• Offshoring: Transfer of some work to sources outside of the United States.
• On-shoring: Relocation of business processes or production to a lower-cost location inside
the United States.
• Near-shoring: Contracting part of the business processes or production to an external
company located in a country that is relatively close.
• HR professionals should perform research on the following when playing a critical role in
supporting the decision making effort of moving work:
o Talent pool: Languages spoken, cultural differences.
o Sociopolitical environment: Governmental regulations, expense involved in meeting
them.
 o Risk levels: IT security, political and labor conflicts, natural disasters, and security for
IT individuals and property.
o Cost and quality: Wage structure, tax structure, communication facilities, Internet
access
Defining the Role of Global HR
• Companies should recruit, train, and manage people locally--reflect local culture, local
labor markets, and the needs of diverse local business units.
o Business and talent strategies should be global in scale and local in implementation.
o Global HR and talent management is the second most urgent and important trend for
large companies around the world.
o Companies face the challenge of developing an integrated global HR and talent
operating model that allows for customizable local implementation, enabling them to
capitalize on rapid business growth in emerging economies.
Creating a Global Strategy
• HR leaders must adhere to local laws, but still meet the needs of regional staff all while
maintaining an across-the-board strategy.
The Strategic Attraction of Globalization
• Cultural attitudes toward globalization have resulted in new thinking called guarded
globalization.
• Push factors: Influencing global organizations
o Saturation of domestic demand and need for new markets: Usually occurs when the
market potential has been almost fully tapped.
o Shortfalls in natural resources and talent supply: When natural resources begin
dwindling in developed countries, it seems reasonable for organizations to look to
other countries for their raw materials.
o Trade agreements: Global expansion is driven by domestic competition from foreign
competitors.
o Technological revolution: Best describes the pace at which technology has changed in
the recent past and is continuing to change.
o Globalized supply chain: Moving production facilities closer to supplier locations can
help reduce costs involved in moving raw materials before processing.
o Domestic recession: Provokes companies to explore foreign markets.
o Increased cost pressures and competition as driving force: May become a driving
force behind internationalization.
o Government policies and regulations: Many governments offer several incentives and
other positive support to domestic companies to export and invest in foreign
locations. However, tax subsidies or tax forgiveness can be a strong magnet for
international business moves.
o Improving the image of companies: "White skin" advantage associated with
exporting.
o Strategic vision: Systematic and growing internationalization of many companies is
essentially part of their business policy or strategic management.
• Pull factors: Factors that make foreign markets attractive:
 o Government policies: When companies encourage foreign investment, domestic
organizations may find it financially beneficial to locate in foreign markets.
o Strategic control: MNCs are locating their subsidiaries in low-wage and low-cost
countries to take advantage of low-cost production.
o Taking advantage of growth opportunities: MNCs are getting increasingly interested
in several developing countries as the income and population are rising in those
respective areas.
o Declining trade and investment barriers: Vastly contributed to globalization
• WTO, EU, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, and FTAA are major alliances among countries.
Strategic Approaches to Globalization
• A firm using global strategy sacrifices responsiveness to local requirements within each of
its markets in favor of emphasizing efficiency.
• Opposite to a multi-domestic strategy***
• Some approaches to strategic globalization:
o Creating a new organization in the foreign country
o Acquiring a subsidiary in the foreign country (maybe through an M&A)
o Creating a new partnership
o Outsourcing all or at least some of the production tasks to a supplier in a new work
location
o Adding capacity to existing domestic locations by offshoring
Global Integration (GI) vs. Local Responsiveness (LR)
• Consumer preference is one strategy for the globalization of product marketing.
Achieving Global Integration
• Global integration means the decisions are made from a global perspective.
Achieving Local Responsiveness
• Achieved by delegating most of the decision-making responsibility to local units and
appointing a local manager to top management teams of subsidiaries.
Global Integration vs. Local Responsiveness Examples
Global-Local Models
• Upstream strategies: Decisions are made at headquarters and apply to strategies for
focusing on the standardization of processes and integration of resources.
o Ex. Strategy for workforce alignment, OD, and sharing knowledge and experience
across internal organization boundaries
• Downstream strategies: Decisions are made at the local level and target adapting strategic
goals to local realities
o Ex. Local work groups, adjustments to standard policies that reflect local
requirements, and operational adjustments.
Identity Alignment and Process Alignment
• Identity Alignment: Based on the diversity of people, products/services, and branding;
differences among locations; adjustment of brand identity and products/services based on
local culture.
o Downsides: Localized offerings can dilute the brand or product/service image unless
the corporate brand is well established.
• Process alignment: How well common internal functions can work across all locations.
 o Downsides: This can be a problem when one organization acquires another.
The FI-LR Matrix: Strategic Options
• International Strategy: All products/services, processes, and strategy at all levels are
developed in the home country even though the organization may export products or
services to other countries.
• Multi-domestic strategy: HQs has little influence over remote subsidiary units. They
develop their own strategies and goals.
• Global strategy: HQ develops and disseminates strategies, products, and services.
Customizable elements are kept to a minimum.
• Transitional strategy: Remote locations are chosen for their access to supplies, vendors,
and local markets.
Perlmutter’s HQs Orientations
• Howard Perlmutter identified a way of classifying alternative management orientations
(EPRG model).
• States that businesses and their staff tend to operate in one of four ways.
o Ethnocentric: These people believe their home country is superior.
 They rely on what they know and seek similarities when looking to new markets.
 Anything overseas or international is seen as less superior than the head office.
o Polycentric: See each country as unique and consider that businesses are best run
locally.
 Polycentric management means the head office places little control on the
activities in each market.
o Regio-centric: Sees similarities and differences in a world region and designs
strategies around this.
o Geocentric: View the world as a potential market and seek to serve this effectively.
 Geocentric management recognizes the similarities and differences between
the home country and international markets.
 Combines ethnocentric and polycentric views
 "Think global, act local" ideology

HR in the Global Context: Part II

Sunday, March 15, 2020
2:13 PM
Sourcing and Shoring
• Off-shoring
o Practice of placing production or other elements of the organization to another
country
o Sometimes chosen because it lowers costs, offers production a closer location for raw
materials, it offers better tax impact or other financial impact.
o Takes advantage of time zone differences.
o Disadvantages can include a strong resistance from customers, language difficulties,
cultural differences, high turnover rates, quality control issues, and educational
degrees that do not offer reliable skills or talents.
 • On-shoring
o When business processes, product manufacturing, or other functions have
contracted out to another organization within the home country.
• Near-shoring
o Practicing part of the organization's business processes to a country that is close to
the home country.
• Outsourcing
o Evidenced by contracts with vendors in the home country other countries can provide
products or services more cheaply than can be offered at HQs.
HR Global Abilities
• Global HR managers need effective communication skills, including the ability to listen well.
HR Global Tasks
• HR Professionals must work toward helping the organization achieve its maximum value.
• HR must help balance the priorities of HQs and subsidiaries.
• HR professionals must facilitate management groups so different disciplines and
professions can achieve joint goals.
HR Global Skills
• HR professionals must be capable of doing a lot of things that require professional HR skills.
Some skills HR professionals must possess in the global workplace:
o Develop a strategic view of the organization
o Develop a global organizational culture
o Secure and grow a safe and robust talent supply chain
o Use and adapt HR technology
o Develop meaningful metrics
o Develop policies and procedures to manage risks
Auditing Global HR Practices
• To determine how global HR practices are actually serving your organization and it's
people, consider these types of representatives in your team selection process:
o HQs HR representative
o Foreign location HR representative
o In-house legal counsel
o Compliance officer
o Outside legal counsel
o Outside international HR expert
o Corporate audit department representative
• Audit should begin by identifying the countries that are involved, then define the focus you
want the audit to have.
• Build a master checklist of areas to be examined, then expand it into a matrix that includes
individual team member assignments, expected completion date for each component, and
the ultimate audit report completion.
Developing a Global Mindset
• Personal development precedes OD.
• There are five steps towards developing a global mindset:
1. Recognize your own cultural values and biases.
 2. Get to know your personality traits, especially curiosity. There are five specific traits
that affect your ability to interact effectively with different cultures:
i. Openness
ii. Flexibility
iii. Social dexterity
iv. Emotional Awareness
v. Curiosity
3. Learn about the workplace and business expectations of relevant countries and
markets
4. Build strong intercultural relationships
5. Develop strategies to adjust and flex your style
Defining a Global Mindset
• One that combines an openness to and awareness of diversity across cultures and markets
with a propensity and ability to see common patterns across countries and markets.
Benefits of a Global Mindset
• Main benefit of a global mindset is the organization's ability to combine speed with
accurate response.
Acquiring a Global Mindset
• Requires you to recognize situations in which demands from both global and local
elements are compelling; need to be open and aware of diversity across cultures and
markets with a willingness and ability to synthesize across this diversity.
Types of Cultures
• Western culture: Includes Anglo and Latino America (English Speaking world).
• African American Culture: Refers to the cultural contributions of AA's to the culture of the
US
• Indosphere: Indian linguistic and cultural influence in Southeast Asia.
• Sinosphere: East Asian sphere, refers to a grouping of countries and regions in East Asia
that were historically influenced by the Chinese Culture.
• Islamic culture: Primarily used in secular academia to describe the cultural practices
common to historically Islamic people.
• Arab culture: Cultural term that stretches across 22 countries in the Middle East that come
from various ethnic and religious backgrounds.
• Tibetan culture: Also known as Buddhism
Definition of Culture
• Culture is the beliefs, customs, arts, etc. of a society, group, place, or time.
How Types of Culture Affect an Organization
• Team-first corporate culture:
o Team-oriented companies hire for culture fit first, skills and experience second.
o Makes employee happiness top priority.
o Frequent team outings, opportunities to provide meaningful feedback, and flexibility
to accommodate EE family lives are common makers of a team-first culture.
• Elite corporate culture:
o Often out to change the world by untested means.
 o Hires only the best because it is always pushing the envelope, and needs to EE's not
merely keep up, but lead the way.
• Horizontal corporate culture:
o Common among startups because it makes for a collaborative, everyone-pitch-in
mindset.
o Younger companies have a product or service they're striving for, yet are more
flexible and able to change based on market research or customer feedback.
• Conventional Corporate Culture
o Usually a culture with any dress code at all (tie, slacks, etc.)
o Traditional companies have clearly defined hierarchies and are still grappling with
learning curve for communicating through new mediums.
o Local banks and car dealerships usually take this approach.
• Progressive Corporate culture
o M&As or sudden changes in the market are usually signs of a progressive corporate
culture.
o Uncertainty is a definitive trait of a progressive culture because EE's often do not
know what to expect next.
Cultural Layers
• Culture looks at it like an onion, consisting of layers that can be peeled off.
Schein's Model
• Edgar Schein developed an organizational culture model to make culture more visible
within an organization.
o Artefacts and symbols: Artefacts mark the surface of an organization, usually seen in
logos, architecture, structure, processes, and corporate clothing.
o Espoused values: This concerns standards, values, and rules of conduct.
o Basic underlying assumptions: Deeply embedded in the organizational culture and are
experienced as self-evident and unconscious behavior.
Cultural Dimensions
• Geert Hofstede suggests there are six cultural dimensions that can be seen from anywhere:
o Power distance: Dimension plays how a culture handles inequality, particularly
relating to money and power.
o Individualism vs. collectivism: Dimension focuses on the unification of culture. The
population is less tightly knit, and there is an "every man for himself" mentality.
o Masculinity vs. femininity: A culture is measured on a scale of masculinity vs.
femininity, which represents a culture's preferences for achievement, competition,
and materialism versus preferences for teamwork, harmony, and empathy.
o Uncertainty avoidance: Cultures are gauged on their response to ambiguity and new
ideas and situations.
o Long-term vs. short-term orientation: A culture will look to innovate when facing new
challenges, or look to the past for answers.
o Indulgence vs. Restraint: All cultures acknowledge that the natural human response in
life is the urgent need to gratify desires.
Hall's Theory of High-and-Low-Context Cultures
 • Hall defines intercultural communication as a form of communication that shares
information across different cultures and social groups.
Hofstede's Dimensions of Culture
• Framework for cross-culture communication, developed by Geert Hofstede. Describes the
effects of a society's culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to
behavior.
Trompenaars’ and Hampede-Turner's Dilemmas
• Known for making opposites attract.
Cross-Cultural Challenges for HR
• HRM is facing increased difficulty in managing cross-border cultural relationships.
Challenges of Culture
• HR must keep an eye open for these specific challenges:
o Colleagues from some cultures may be less likely to let their voices be heard.
o Integration across multicultural teams can be difficult in the face of prejudice or
negative cultural stereotypes.
o Professional communication can be misinterpreted or difficult to understand across
languages and cultures.
o Navigating visa requirements, employment laws, and the cost of accommodating
workplace requirements can be difficult.
o There may be different understandings of professional etiquette.
o There may be conflicting working styles across teams.
Dilemma Reconciliation
• A dilemma is a nonlinear problem and therefore needs a non-linear problem-solving
approach.
Creating Cultural Synergy
• Coined term from work by Nancy Adler that describes an attempt to bring two or more
cultures together to form an organization or environment that is based on combined
strengths, concepts, and skills.
Managing Global Assignments
Strategic Role of Global Assignments
• Global assignments can contribute to the organization's strategic plan by offering training
for senior managers and executives, enhancing cultural exposure and emersion.
Types of Assignments
• Technical assignments occur when EE's with technical skills are sent from one country to
another to fill a skill shortage.
• Developmental assignments occur within a management development program, and are
used to equip managers with the new skills and competencies.
• Strategic Assignments occur when key executives are sent from one country to another to
launch a product, develop a market, or initiate another key change in business strategy.
• Functional assignments resemble technical assignments, but differ in one important
respect.
Managing Allegiances
• Sometimes, people are torn between their parent company and their local company.
Global Assignment Guidelines
 • Companies that manage their expats effectively come in many sizes, yet they all follow
three general practices:
o When making international assignments, they focus on knowledge creation and
global leadership development.
o They assign overseas posts to people whose technical skills are matched or exceeded
by their cross-cultural abilities.
o They end expatriate assignments with a deliberate repatriation process.
What Managers Should Know
• Global HRMs should select the right person, prepare the expat and the family, measure the
employee's performance from afar, and repatriating the individual at the end of an
assignment by requiring a well-planned, well-managed program.
The Global Assignment Process
1. Assessment and selection: Determining who will be appointed to the international job
depends on who meets the job requirements in the best way.
2. Management and assignee decision: The selecting manager determines how long the
assignee will have to accept or reject the appointment.
3. Predeparture preparation: What are the immigrant requirements in the destination
country? What visa requirements must be processed? What provisions will be made for the
visa's family members?
4. On assignment: Settling process is required when the EE arrives at the new location.
5. Completing the assignment: There should be a debriefing process when the employee
comes home, and inquiries should be made about the employee's opinion about the job
environment, the work itself, the support received from the employer, and what things
could be done differently.
Navigating the Global Legal Environment
• There are always labor-management laws to be considered regardless of where one works
in the world.
World Legal Systems
• Several different types of legal systems, and they do not always agree with one another.
o Civil law: Inspired largely from Roman law, by given precedence to written law,
resolutely opted for a systematic codification of their general law. Most widespread
law system in the world.
o Common law: Legal systems based on judge-made laws. Are based on custom,
culture, habit, and previous judicial decisions throughout the world.
o Religious law: Muslim law system, based on the Koran.
Key Concepts of Law
• Rule of law: Principle that law should govern a nation, as opposed to being governed by
decisions of individual government officials.
• Due process: Acts as a safeguard from arbitrary denial of life, liberty, or property by the
government outside the sanction of law.
• Jurisdiction: Applies to government agencies as well as courts.
Levels of Law
• Within a nation: At a national level, there can be laws created that apply to the entire
country and others that apply to only a subset of the nation.
 • National laws: Federal laws apply to all governmental subsets.
• Subnational: AKA nation-state, canton, or province, they can create their own laws under
the federal umbrella. These laws apply only within their own jurisdiction.
• Between and among nations: When nations agree that the same laws should apply to each
of them, one of the following types of rule would come into existence.
• Extraterritorial: Legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond normal
boundaries. EU and WTO are examples of ETJ.
• Regional/Supranational: International group or union in which the power and influence of
member states transcend national boundaries or interests to share in decision-making and
vote on issues concerning the collective body.
• International: Body of rules established by custom or treaty and recognized by nations as
binding in their relations with one another.

Diversity & Inclusion: Part I

Tuesday, March 17, 2020
7:09 PM
Functional Area 12: Diversity & Inclusion
• Diversity and inclusion encompasses activities that create opportunities for the
organization to leverage the unique backgrounds and characteristics of all employees to
contribute to its success.
• Having a diverse workforce will not persist if that diverse group does not feel included as
individuals.
Diversity
• Diversity is a workforce characteristic that indicates a mixture of social, cultural, and
personal attributes that affect individual attitudes and behaviors.
• Diversity characteristics impact how others react to individuals "because they are
different."
Diversity of Thought
• Thought processes and references are determined by the experiences people have had and
the interactions with others that were part of those experiences.
• Organizational leaders need to understand everyone’s background to understand how to
encourage them to fully participate in the organizational workings.
Inclusion
• Inclusion is the characteristic of a workplace referring to behaviors within the organization
that determine how individuals are valued, engaged, and respected.
• Inclusion is linked to EEO.
Diversity WITHOUT Inclusion
• Diversity DOES NOT innately result in inclusion.
• Inclusion comes from conscious efforts, and depends on the commitment to assuring each
person is welcomed as a participant in every facet of work life.
Diversity and Globalization
• Lack of variety in cultural experience makes it more difficult, let alone encourage, recruiting
a diverse group of job candidates.
Global Legal Distinctions
• EEO requires some serious study of local and federal requirements in each political
jurisdiction where you will have employees located.
The Benefits and Costs of Diversity
• The benefits of active diversity policies were determined to include the following:
o Strengthened cultural values within the organization
o Enhanced corporate reputation
o Helped attract and retain highly talented people
o Improved motivation and efficiency of existing staff
o Improved innovation and creativity among employees
o Enhanced service levels and customer satisfaction
o Helped overcome labor shortages
o Reduced labor turnover
o Resulted in lower absenteeism rates
• The costs of diversity programs were determined to include the following:
o Costs of legal compliance
o Cash costs of diversity
o Opportunity costs of diversity
o Business risks of diversity (execution risk).
The 4 Layers of Diversity
• Personality: Includes an individual's likes and dislikes, values, and beliefs.
• Internal dimensions: Includes aspects of diversity in which we have no control over. These
dimensions include the first things we see in other people, such as race or gender, and
make many assumptions and base judgements.
• External Dimensions: Include aspects of our lives that we have some control over.
o Basis for decisions on careers and work styles.
o Layer often determines with whom we develop friendships and what we do for work.
o Whom we like to be with and make decisions in hiring, promotions, etc.
• Organizational Dimensions: Layer concerns the aspects of culture found in a work setting.
o Issues of preferential treatment and opportunities for development or promotion are
impacted by the aspects of this layer.
• Internal Dimensions receive primary attention in successful diversity initiatives,
organizational dimensions often determine the way people are treated, who 'fits' or not fit
in the department, professional development, etc.
Implications of an Inclusive Definition
• Some measurements include job satisfaction, relations with supervisors and group
members, intention to stay with the organization, commitment, job performance,
organizational citizenship, well-being, creativity, and career opportunities for diverse
individuals.
Visible and Invisible Diversity Traits
• Visible diversity traits (race, gender, age, body type, skin color, behaviors).
• Invisible diversity traits (sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, military experiences,
culture, parental status, among other things).
Why a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy?
 • Reason 1: Priority- Without a strategy, D&I efforts will always take a backseat to other
more immediately urgent matters.
• Reason 2- Complexity- D&I programs are not simple. Complexity requires organization-wide
strategies if successful implementation is to be achieved.
• Reason 3- Resistance- D&I programs require organizational change.
The D&I Strategic Process
• Once a decision has been made to develop and implement a D&I program, you will need to
identify the strategic steps you must take to achieve success.
Executive Commitment
• Changing organizational behaviors and individual attitudes are to be laid out by the highest
level of executives.
Making the Business Case for D&I
• Business acumen and external market knowledge
o Executives understand and are current on global/local trends, and how they inform
and influence D&I.
o Gather and use competitive intelligence
o Understand diverse customer/client needs
o Understand and are current with global sociopolitical environments
o Understand context and lessons learned
• Holistic business knowledge: Requires understanding of the impact of the financial,
economic, and market drivers on the bottom-line results. Additional requirements include:
o Understand core business strategies.
o Possess solid financial acumen.
o Use information from multiple disciplines and sources to offer integrates ideas and
solutions on issues important to the organization.
• D&I ROI: Where the financial impact of the D&I program becomes evident. Requirements
include:
o Determine and communicate how D&I contributes to core business strategy and
results.
o Create insights on how D&I contributes both to people and HR strategies as well as
business results.
o Design and develop D&I metrics that exhibit the ROI impact.
Preliminary Assessment
• Surveying the workforce will help you understand the "state enterprise" about D&I.
Infrastructure Creation
• Some changes can be uncomfortable for some people, and that demands you be ready to
give employees support they need to get past their discomfort to participate in successful
implementation of your program.
Diversity Councils
• Diversity councils are groups of employees who discuss D&I issues.
Employee Resource Groups
• Groups of similar employees who can express opinions and requests for consideration that
apply to their group.
Strategic Alliances
 • D&I programs can make use of linkages to community groups that support efforts to
expand or reinforce outreach efforts for groups of people.
• Many are focused on increasing employment opportunities for their qualified membership.
System Changes
• D&I programs will require the way employers operate.
Recruitment, Sourcing, Hiring
• Larger organizations can usually afford to have people on staff who are dedicated to
identifying and developing relationship opportunities within the employer's recruiting
geography.
Onboarding and Retention
• How an EE is treated when they first come to work (onboarding) and what is done to make
sure they can be retained for longer periods of time will contribute to a larger financial
payback and lower turnover rates for the employer.
Promotion & Career Development
• Using promotion for those who are qualified and interested in advancement can be a solid
motivational tool and morale builder when EE's see "nontraditional" advancement.
Compensation & Benefits
• It is essential that compensation and benefit programs act to constructively balance both
the appearance and reality of fairness in employee treatment.
Supply Chain Management and Relations
• Vendor and supplier relations are important to D&I programs because spending dollars is
an activity that raises sensitivity and a desire to be on the receiving end of a transaction.
• Businesses owned by veterans or disabled persons should be able to participate in the
contracting or bidding process.
Marketing, Branding, and Customer Relations
• Broad appeal and establishing a brand that is recognized and valued by multiple cultures is
also desirable.
• Providing literature in languages that are native to customers is another way to address
their needs and increase diversity and inclusion of the various nationality groups.
Training
• Training managers and non-managers can be a key component of the D&I program by:
o Involves the communication of key organizational values
o Raise the skills levels of supervisor and manager groups
o Help new workers understand "how we do things around here."
o Help lessons last for the duration of the EE's tenure.
Measurement and Evaluation
• Measuring diversity programs can be evaluated by looking at the demographics of the EE
composition.
• Inclusion is more difficult, and can be measured using EE surveys.
Why Diversity Initiatives Falter
• How a company defines diversity and inclusion needs to be clear enough in terms that both
your workforce can both understand and reiterate the definition and "walk the talk" in all
functions of work, demonstrated leadership, policies, systems, and programs.
 • Annual D&I training is helpful, but it is not enough because they are delivered as a strong-
arm tactic.
• "If diversity management is strategic to the organization, diversity training must be
mandatory, and management has to make it clear that 'if you can't deal with that, then we
have to ask you to leave.'"
• People respond to compulsory training with anger and resistance.
• Companies do a better job of increasing diversity when they forgo the control tactics and
frame their efforts more positively.
Evolution and Integration
• Organizations can start broadening their understanding of diversity by deriving value from
people's different perspectives on problems and different ways to address solutions.
• Thinking of diversity in this way (diversity of thought) helps organizations see value and be
conscious of the risk associated with homogeneity.
HR Role in the D&I Process
• HR professionals in the role of D&I is higher than other organization stakeholders.
• HR professionals are often asked to play a key role in the design and implementation of
impactful D&I solutions.
Aspects of Organizational Change
• Any organizational change effort is dependent upon having clear objectives and
implementation assignments.
Individual Attitudes and Behaviors
• Three major components of personal attitudes and behaviors of HRM groups trying to
implement a successful D&I program:
o Global mindset: For a D&I strategy to be truly global, D&I professionals need to
understand the culture, politics, economics, and relevant legislation within the
regions in which their businesses operate.
o Emotional intelligence: Ability to monitor people's emotions, find distinctions
between them, and use that information to guide their behavior.
o Intercultural wisdom: Knowing what we do not know about values, behavior,
communication styles of people from other cultures.
Managerial Skills and Practices
• Individual competence in areas of decision-making, leadership, communication, inner work
standards, personal ethics, behavioral flexibility, creativity, self-objectivity, tolerance for
uncertainty, and resistance to stress.
The 4 T's: Travel, Teams, Training, Transfers
• Gregson, Morrison, Black identified each of the categories as critical for international
management success.
o Travel: Allows future leaders to see where their followers come from culturally,
economically, and politically.
o Teams: Reflect the need to allow inclusive participation and consensus building.
o Training: Involves language, development, internships, and development of
facilitation skills.
o Transfers: Provide opportunity to spend a significant amount of time overseas to
immerse ones self in a foreign culture.
Organizational Values and Policies
• Organizational values represent "why we do what we do."
• Policies should be designed to support that things the organization values, and be the
guidance for handling issues that arise on a regular or routine basis.
Critical Policy Challenge
• It is best practice to review all organizational policies at least once a year.
• When a policy needs to be changed, it needs to be rewritten and then distributed to all
employees with enough advance notice that the effective date will be far enough in the
future.
Challenge of Details
• When those policies must change, or we have a central shift in values, EE's need to be
given enough detail about the changes so they can adapt and implement the changes
appropriately.
Challenges of Dimension-Specific Issues
• Diversity can be thought of in terms of individual components or as well as any other
workplace issue.
• Primary diversity dimensions are what is found at the federal, state, or local levels.
• Secondary diversity dimensions are those that have impact in workplace interactions and
achievements, but are not as predominant as primary dimensions.

Risk Management: Part I

Thursday, March 19, 2020
10:26 AM
Functional Area 13- Risk Management
• Risk management is the identification, assessment and prioritization of risks, and the
application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and impact of
those risks accordingly.
• In HR, risk management involves health insurance, discrimination and EE behavior,
workplace safety, asset security, etc.
Establishing the Context of Risk
• HR professionals can have a great impact on the organizational finances by preventing
large losses through proper risk management programs.
Focusing Risk Management
• Risk management in HR covers complying with federal employment laws, identifying
workplace hazards, developing safety plans to protect EE's and the public, and preparing
job descriptions to describe mental and physical requirements of a job.
• Risk management explores how technology can help manage the liability that comes with
operating an employment organization.
• Risk management addresses issues related to EE's, customers, clients, the public, and
vendors/suppliers.
• RM is the process of managing liabilities related to these populations in ways that will
protect the ER organization.
 • HR professionals are the key to striking a balance by developing,
implementing/administering, and evaluating programs, policies, and procedures to provide
a safe, secure working environment, and to protect the organization from potential liability.
Defining Risk
• Risk is the potential for losing something of value.
Categories of Risk
• Planning for risk management is based on the ability to identify anticipated risks.
Kaplan and Mike's Categories
• Robert Kaplan and Annette Mikes are Harvard Business School professors and suggested
three different categories of risks:
o Preventable risks: Internal risks that are controllable and should be eliminated or
avoided and include illegal, unethical, or inappropriate actions and breakdowns in
operational processes.
o Strategic risks: Identified and accepted in the process of strategic planning.
o External risks: Risks generally cannot be prevented from happening
Enterprise Perspective
• When risks are identified, the potential impact on each department can be assessed as well
as the impact on the enterprise.
HR and Risk
• HR professionals help protect the employer from serious harm and the employees from
abuse.
ISO Principles, Framework, and Process
• The International Organization for Standardization is the world's largest developer and
publisher of international standards (ANSI in the US).
Establishing the Context of Risk Management
• The key variables of risk management should be considered as follows:
o Goals and objectives: Clearly defined goals and objectives are essential to identifying,
assessing, and managing those areas that may threaten success.
o Policies and standards: Ensure that risk management efforts complement and
consider any risk management policies, standards, or requirements the organization
has in place.
o Scope and criticality of the decision: The risk analysis and management effort should
be commensurate with the criticality of the decision.
o Decision-makers and stakeholders: Stakeholders should be engaged and represented
throughout the risk management process.
o Decision time frame: The time frame in which a decision must be made and executed
will dictate a number of the attributed of the risk management effort, including how
much time is available for conducting formal analysis and decision review.
o Risk management capabilities and resources: At the beginning of the process, it is
useful to identify the staff, money, skill sets, knowledge levels, and other resources
available for risk analysis and management efforts.
o Risk tolerance: Risk management efforts often involve trade offs between positive
and negative outcomes.
 o Availability and quality of information: Consider the anticipated data limitations,
including expected levels of uncertainty, so decision-makers can adjust their
expectations accordingly.
Risk Criteria
• According to ISO 31000, risk criteria are terms of reference and are used to evaluate the
significance or importance of an organization's risks, determine whether a specified level of
risk is acceptable or tolerable, and should reflect your organization's values, policies, and
objectives.
Moral Hazard
• Moral hazard is a situation where one party gets involved in a risky event, knowing it is
protected against the risk, and the other party will incur the cost.
Principal-Agent Problem
• The problem of motivating one party to act on behalf of another is called the principal-
agent problem.
Conflict of Interest
• COI is a conflict between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in
a position of trust.
Identifying and Analyzing Risk
• Risk identification is the process of recognizing and defining risks; a systematic process to
comprehend the nature and level of the risk.
Risk Assessment Phase
• Risk assessment involves evaluating and comparing the level of risk against predetermined
standards, target risk levels, or other criteria.
Identifying Risks
• Risk identification is the process of determining risks that could potentially prevent the
program, enterprise, or investment from achieving its objectives.
Risk Identification Approaches
• Brainstorming: Freewheeling generation of ideas without criticism of any one until later.
• Delphi technique: Facilitator distributes a questionnaire to experts, and responses are
summarized and circulated among the experts for comments.
o Used to achieve a consensus of experts and helps to receive unbiased data.
• Interviewing: Discussion with individuals using questions to stimulate responses.
• Root-cause Analysis (RCA): Identifying a problem, discovering the causes that led to it, and
developing preventative action.
• Checklist analysis: Technique may reveal an inconsistency of assumptions or may uncover
problematic assumptions.
• Diagramming techniques: Includes Cause-and-effect, system or process flow charts, or
influence diagrams.
• SWOT Analysis: Structured planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats (SWOT) involved in a project or business venture.
• Expert judgement: Individuals who have experience with similar projects may use their
judgement through interviews or risk facilitation workshops.
Analyzing Risks
 • Risk analysis involves evaluating vulnerable assets, describing potential impacts, and
estimating losses for each hazard.
Risk Analysis Tools
• Risk Scorecard: Uses eight critical areas to evaluate a given program's reliability progress.
(on a 100 point scale)
o Risk assessment
o Reliability requirements and planning
o Training and development
o Reliability analysis
o Reliability testing
o Supply chain management
o Failure tracking and reporting
o Verification and validation
o Reliability improvements
Evaluating Risks
• A risk evaluation system is a combination of practices, tools, and methodologies within a
risk management system used to measure the potential impacts of risk events on the
performance metrics of an organization.
• An act of measuring potential impacts that various risks will have on the organization's
ability to accomplish it's objectives.
Key Risk Indicators
• A KRI is a measure that indicates how risky an activity is; measures the possibility of a
future adverse impact.
• Any piece of data that can perform this function may be considered a risk indicator.
Risk Register
• A risk register acts as a central repository for all risks defined by the organization, and for
each risk, includes information such as source, nature, treatment option, existing
countermeasures, recommended countermeasures, etc.
Managing Risks
• Once risks are identified and logged, the next step is planning for handling those risks
believed to bring negative impacts on the enterprise that cannot be accepted.
Responses to Upside & Downside Risks
• Possible adverse outcomes represent downside risk. There is an upside risk when there's
uncertainty about a desirable outcome.
Eliminate Uncertainty
• Risk can be managed if the uncertainty is eliminated.
• If you can eliminate the uncertainty of an event, you can control the risk.
Redefine Ownership
• If you can redefine ownership of the problem, you can reduce your risk exposure.
o Share: Sharing the risk of being an employer by entering into a joint-employer
relationship with an employment leasing agency (PEOs).
o Transfer: Transferring risk is done by purchasing insurance policies.
Increase or Decrease Effect
 • Teaching EE's about the dangers of harassing behavior can help them reduce their personal
exposure to liability, along with the employer's.
Take No Action
• When a risk is identified and defined, it may be judged to be in the best interest of the
organization to do nothing.
o Accept: The decision is to take no action to eliminate the hazard and just wait to see
how things develop.
o Ignore: When a safety hazard is identified, considered, and ignored, there is no
credence given to the level of risk or the certainty of loss.
Implementing the Risk Management Plan
• A risk management plan results from analysis of the circumstances that foresees risks,
estimates impacts, and defines responses to issues.
Defining Risk Management Performance Objectives
• Risk management performance objectives should be part of the overall list of performance
objectives generated at each level of the organization.
Integration
• Ensure risk management processes is aligned with strategic decision-making processes and
existing performance measures; ensure consistency of risk management process is
coordinated across the entire enterprise.
Communication
• Proper risk management plans will involve employees in training programs and daily
discussions. (Tailgate meetings).
Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity
• Proper planning can save lives and property.
Crisis Management Planning and Readiness Process
• First step toward having an Emergency Response Plan is to conduct a risk assessment for
your work location by looking at the physical facilities, emergency exits, fire suppression
systems, etc.
• Engage key personnel in the development process
• Ensure everyone in the workplace knows about it once the plan is developed.
Manage Risk
• It is important to identify risks, then moving on to how to deal with them effectively.
Develop Contingency Plans
• Employers must have a plan for how they will continue operating their organization.
• It should be common practice for backups to be made of all technology systems, especially
an HRIS.
Test and Implement Plans
• A key element of disaster recovery is practicing the contingent plan to see whether it will
actually work.
• Employees need to practice evacuating their work location so they know for sure which
exit they should use, and what their assigned rallying point is once outside the building.
Debrief and Learn
• Evaluate the results of the rehearsal and adjust the plans based on those experiences;
identify where improvements can be made, and then make them.
 • Debriefing should gather input from all individuals and the opportunity to be sure of all
communication channels are open and working accurately.
Providing Oversight
• Identifying how risk management is being handled becomes a key element of the board's
responsibilities.
Evaluating Effectiveness of Risk Management Policies and Processes
• The most effective feedback or evaluation comes from having actually experienced the
danger (risk) that plans had been developed to address.
• Healthy organizations to conduct periodic tests of their risk management plans through
exercises designed to probe every element of reaction to the problem anticipated.
• Some plans should be tested more often than others.
After-Action Debriefs and Incidents Investigations
• How to determine the effectiveness of risk management plan test exercises depends on
what the plan involves.
• An investigation should provide direction for resolving any remaining issues.
Whistle-blowing
• When an EE (or outside person) blows the whistle on bad behavior going on within the
organization, it can result in a public relations nightmare.
• Someone will need to be positioned to speak for the company on issues (e.g. illegal
activity).
• There needs to be a predesignated group of key EE's who will decide quickly how to
address the problem and explain the company's reaction to it when addressing the media.
Promoting Continuous Improvement
• Kaizen (Japanese)- the never-ending quest for perfection. (continuous improvement).
• The idea is to strive for a little better quality, quantity, and effort each day.
• Tom Peters became known by stating MBWA was the most effective approach and
produced the greatest positive organizational results.
• EE's are truly the best resource for identifying better ways of doing things.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Part I

Friday, March 20, 2020
10:48 AM
Functional Area 14: Corporate Social Responsibility
• CSR represents the organization's commitment to operate in an ethical and sustainable
manner by engaging in activities that promote and support philanthropy, transparency,
sustainability, and ethically sound governance practices.
• An HR professional's role in CSR is to help the organization and its employees to integrate
CSR into the everyday business activities of the organization.
• CSR reflects how the organization integrates and aligns with its communities as a helping
hand for sustaining economic prosperity, social equity, and environmental protection.
The Ever Changing and Growing CSR
• CSR is now seen as a comprehensive strategic initiative for the organization, aligned with
business strategy.
Is Sustainability the New CSR?
• Sustainability is a key focus for many organizations as government and regulatory
pressures, societal demands, and even climate change have increased its demands on
companies.
• Triple bottom line: Simultaneous delivery of positive results for people, planet, and profit.
• The HR function is critical to achieving success in a sustainability-driven organization.
Redefining Sustainability
• Time, labor, and finances are where HR is involved with the design or implementation of
programs.
Today's CSR
• CSR involves keeping an eye within the organization's communities, including local,
national, and even international; CSR strives to enhance the organization's reputation.
• Strategic relationship and behaviors are elements involved in CSR activities such as being a
member of the Chamber of Commerce or sponsoring a local nonprofit fundraiser.
• When identifying the goals and objectives for CSR, it is ideal to use the same analysis tools
as used with Strategic Planning to identify the long-term investment and involvement for
the organization.
Framework, Guidelines, and Examples
• Gaining a clear perspective of the work is the best starting point for developing a CSR
strategy.
OECD Guidelines
• The Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises established in 1976 is one of the first to
address corporate governance.
• Covers the following:
o Transparency governance and disclosure
o Environment
o Consumer interests
o Workforce Relations
o Bribery
o Science and technology application and access
Unites Nations Global Compact
• 2000: The UNGC has ten principles addressing human rights, labor, environmental, and
anti-corruption issues.
o Human Rights
1. Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally
proclaimed human rights.
2. Make sure they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
o Labor
3. Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective
recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
4. Eliminate all forms of forced and compulsory labor.
5. Abolish child labor.
6. Eliminate discrimination in respect to employment and occupation.
o Environment
 7. Businesses are asked to support a precautionary approach to environmental
challenges.
8. Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.
9. Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly
technologies.
o Anti-Corruption
10. Businesses should work together against corruption in all its forms, including
extortion and bribery.
Caux Principles
• The Caux Round Table (CRT) principles believe that the world business community should
play an important role in improving economic and social conditions.
• In 1994, Japan, Europe, and the US formalized a set of international business standards
based on the values of human dignity and working together for the common good.
• The key Caux principles are as follows:
1. Respect stakeholders beyond shareholders: Contribute value to society and act with
honesty and fairness toward customers, suppliers, competitors, employees, and the
community.
2. Contribute to economic, social, and environmental development.
3. Build trust by going beyond the letter of the law.
4. Respect rules and conventions.
5. Support responsible globalization
6. Respect the environment.
7. Avoid illicit activities.
ISO 26000
• ISO 26000 is the international standard developed to help organizations effectively assess
and address those social responsibilities that are relevant and significant to their mission
and vision; operations and processes; customers, employees, communities, and other
stakeholders; and the environment.
• Provides guidance on key themes of social responsibility, it is a quality standard.
SA8000
• SAI is the international nongovernmental organization; an auditable certification standard
that encourages organizations to develop, maintain, and apply socially acceptable practices
in the workplace; focuses on human rights and labor relationship, that provides process
and performance criteria.
• Frequently used as a tool for ensuring human rights in extended supply chains.
• Focuses on systems that need to be in place for management. There are nine key areas of
SA8000:
1. Human rights and labor relations
2. Child labor
3. Forced or compulsory labor
4. Health and safety
5. Freedom of association and right to collective bargaining
6. Discrimination
7. Disciplinary practices
 8. Working hours
9. Remuneration
10. Management systems
GRI G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
• The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Sustainability Guidelines are the universally
accepted standard for global reporting or a company's sustainability effort and progress.
• The main goal is for organizations to identify and report on what GRI terms material
aspects that are significant to a business's economic, environmental, and social impacts
that influence the decisions of its stakeholders.
KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting
• KPMG provides a detailed explanation of what is being reported and the quality of the
reporting. KPMG is helpful with the following:
o Identifying areas that organizations need to address and how to report and measure
on the results and outcomes.
o Providing support in making the business case for a sustainability strategy for an
organization.
Philanthropy and Volunteerism
• The tide has shifted to a more strategic focus on donations, one that affiliates with the
organization's relevant business or branding.
Employee Volunteerism
• Volunteerism can positively impact employee engagement.
• A great risk for employers centers around the FLSA; an employer can't require an employee
to "volunteer."
• There is no such thing as "volunteering" for a for-profit company; if a company "suffers or
permits" an employee to work, the EE has to be paid at least minimum wage under FLSA.
• Organizations need a policy and program around volunteerism so EE's and management
completely tow the FLSA line and understand what can and should not be expected of the
workforce.

U.S. Employment Law & Regulations: Part I

Saturday, March 21, 2020
2:32 PM
Functional Area 15: U.S. Employment Law and Regulations
• U.S. Employment Law & Regulations refers to the knowledge and application of all relevant
laws and regulations in the US related to employment; provisions that set the parameters
and limitations for each HR functional area and for organizations overall.
• HR professionals are responsible for compliance of HR programs and policies to be in
alignment with employment laws and regulations.
HR and the Legislative and Regulatory Environment
• Many changes can be accomplished through the federal contracting employer community.
Organizational Compliance
• Compliance has become expensive for employers, in and out of the federal contracting
world.
 • The federal government has enacted the following rules regarding EE management in the
first few years of the century:
o 2000: Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act
o 2001: The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act
o 2001: The USA Patriot Act
o 2002: The IRS Immediate Sanctions
o 2002: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
o 2002: The Homeland Security Act
o 2003: The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA)
o 2006: The Pension Protection Act (PPA)
o 2008: Jobs for Veterans Act
o 2002: Americans with Disabilities Act (Amendments) (ADA-A)
o 2008: Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)
o 2008: The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act
o 2008: The National Defense Authorization Act
o 2009: The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
o 2009: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
o 2009: The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act
o 2010: The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
o 2010: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
o 2012: The FAA Modernization and Reform Act
Employee Records Management
• There are three reasons why proper recordkeeping is a requirement for employers:
1. It simply makes good business sense to have accurate information handy and
organized when you want to see it.
2. Most business owners and managers will eventually encounter the need to produce
documentation about EE performance and work history.
3. Some EE records are required by federal or state governments and must be kept
somewhere (organizing them by EE name makes access easy).
• State laws permit EE's the right to examine their personal employment records; simply
allows individuals the opportunity to confirm information in the file and identify any
specific information that is believed to be incorrect.
• As an employer, you usually have the right to control the time and location of these
examinations, as long as you're reasonable in doing so.
• The objective is to ensure accuracy of information about each person.
• Ownership of the personnel file and its contents rests with the employer who maintains it.
• Access to information about EE's should be strictly limited to those people in your business
with a need to use the information in their jobs.
• Employment verifications are usually required to support such things as mortgage
applications, credit applications, and the like.
• For EE's, it is necessary to have information in the personnel file that would be considered
illegal to gather prior to the job offer being made (e.g. health and life insurance programs).
Personnel File
• Collection of record files maintained by various people in various locations; central file is
usually maintained by the HR department. Additional EE records can be located in the
training department, labor relations, and in the desk of the immediate supervisor.
• The following should be in a personnel file when circumstances require them:
• Employment Request for Application
o EE's original employment application
o Prescreening application notes
o College recruiting interview report form
o Employment interview report form
o Education verification
o Employment verification
o Other background verification
o Rejection letter
o Employment offer letter
o Employment agency agreement (if hired through an agency)
o EE handbook acknowledgement form showing receipt of handbook
o Checklist from new EE orientation showing subjects covered
o Veterans/disabled self-identification form
o Transfer requests
o Relocation offer records
o Relocation report
o Security clearance status
o Payroll
o W-4 Form
o Time sheets
o Individual attendance record
o Pay advance request record
o Garnishment orders and records
o Authorization for release of private information
o Authorization for all other payroll actions
• Performance Appraisals
o New EE progress reports
o Performance Appraisal forms
o Performance improvement program records
• Training & Development
o Training history records
o Training program applications/requests
o Skills inventory questionnaire
o Training evaluation forms
o In-house training notification letters
o Training expense reimbursement records
• Employee Separations
o Exit interview form
o Final EE performance appraisal
 o Exit interviewer's comment form
o Record of documents given with final paycheck
• Benefits
o Emergency Contact form
o Medical/dental/vision coverage waiver/drop form
o Vacation accrual/taken form
o Request for nonmedical LOA
o Retirement application
o Payroll deduction authorizations
o COBRA notification/election
o Hazardous substance notification and/or reports
o Tuition reimbursement application and/or payment records
o Employer concession and/or discount authorization
o Annual benefits statement acknowledgement
o Safety training/meeting attendance/summary forms
• Wage/Salary Administration
o Job description form
o Job analysis questionnaire
o Payroll authorization form
o FLSA exemption test
o Compensation history record
o Compensation recommendations
o Notification of wage and/or salary increase/decrease
• Employee Relations
o Report of coaching/counseling session
o EAP consent form
o Commendations
o EE written warning notice
o Completed EE suggestion forms
o Suggestion status reports
• The following should not be in a personnel file:
o Medical Records
 Physician records of examination
 Diagnostic records
 Laboratory test records
 Drug screening records
 Any of the records listed previously in the discussion on HIPAA
 Any other medical records with PII about individual EE's
o Investigation Records
 Discrimination complaint investigation information
 Legal case data
 Accusations of policy/legal violations
o Security Clearance Investigation Records
 Background investigation information
  Personal credit history
 Personal criminal conviction history
 Arrest record
o Insupportable Opinions
 Marginal notes on any document indicating management bias or discrimination

U.S. Employment Law & Regulations: Part II

Sunday, March 22, 2020
11:04 AM
Medical File
• HIPAA (1996) requires employers and health care providers to protect medical records as
confidential, separate, and apart from other business records.
• Here are examples of information you should extract from your personnel file and place in
separately protected files as medical information:
o Health insurance application form
o Life insurance application form
o Request for medical LOA, regardless of reason
o Personal accident reports
o Workers' compensation report of injury or illness
o OSHA injury or illness reports
o Any other form or document that contains private medical information for a specific
EE
• Each employer should have a policy addressing such questions that complies with state
requirements, whereas federal law does not address the question.
Investigation File
• Any time a complaint is lodged, or law enforcement agencies get involved with individual
EE's, it may be necessary to conduct an investigation of facts.
Recordkeeping Legal Compliance

Federal Records Retention Requirements

Record Required Retention Period Requirement
Citation
Wages, Hours, Working Conditions 4 years from date FLSA (1938)
Payroll Records of last entry (IRS)
• Name
• Address
• Social Security Number
• Occupation
• Hours worked each day (nonexempt
EE's)
• Wages paid
• Payday records
 • Straight/overtime pay
• Union collective bargaining agreements
• Qualified benefit plans
• Trust records
• EE notices
• Sales and purchasing records
Payroll Records 2 years from the FLSA (1938)
• Basic time and earnings cards last date of entry
• Wage rate tables
• Work time schedules
• Order, shipping, billing, records
• Records of additions to/or deductions
from wages
• Unemployment compensation
contributions
Payroll Records 5 years after filing Labor Management
• Any report required by the Secretary of report based on Reporting &
Labor records Disclosure Act of
• All backup data required to prepare 1959
required reports (including vouchers,
worksheets, receipts, dispute
resolutions)
Occupational Health & Safety Records 5 years following OSHA (1970)
• Log of occupational injuries or illnesses injury or illness
resulting in medical treatment (other
than first aid)
• OSHA 300 report posted each year (2/1- 5 years after the OSHA (1970)
4/30) year reported; up
• Hazardous condition exposures to 30 years after
• Medical tests and screening employment ends
• EE medical records
• Allegations of EE exposure
• Heavy equipment operation needs
Unemployment Tax 4 years after tax is Federal
• Total pay, including amounts withheld due or paid Unemployment Tax
for any reason Act (IRC 3301-3311)
• Wages subject to tax
• Contributions to state unemployment
funds
Social Security & Medicare Tax 4 years after tax is Treasury Regulations
• Name, address, and SSN of all EE's due or paid, (Sec 6001-2)
• Total amount and date of each payment, whichever is later
and period covered by payment
• Amount of total wages subject to tax
• Amount of EE tax collected for each pay
period
• Explanation of any difference between
total and taxable pay
• Details of adjustment or settlement of
taxes
• Records of tips received by EE's,
including statements of tops provided by
EE's
• All employer filing records

Work Authorization Records 3 years after date IRCA (1986)

• Form I-9 for each EE hired after of hire, or 1 year
November 6, 1986 after termination
• Form I-9s kept in a separate file from of employment
other personnel records (whichever is
• Student work permits later)
Polygraph Exams 3 years after exam EPPA
• Statement of reasons for conducting the
examination
• Copy of statement given to examinee
about time and place of examination
• Copies of opinions, reports, etc. to
employer from examiner
Nondiscrimination, EEO, and Affirmative 1 year from date Title VII (1964); ADEA
Action Records of personnel (1967)
• Employment records action, or until
• Payroll records any discrimination
• Job descriptions charge is resolved
• Union contracts and agreements
• Retirement, pension, and insurance 3 years for AA
plans employers unless
• Seniority and merit system descriptions employer has
and records fewer than 150
EE's or does not
have a
government
 contract at least
$150,000; then
the retention is 2
years from the
date of making
the record or the
personnel action
taken
• Employment requisitions 1 year (same as Civil Rights Act of
• Job Advertisements Title VII) 1964, Executive
• Job applications and testing documents Order 11246
• Affirmative action plans and all supporting 3 years for AA
evidence of good faith efforts to implement employers with
the plans the same
• Standard form 100 (EEO-1, EEO-4, EEO-3, exceptions shown
EEO-5) for Title VII
• Interviewer records and noted 3 years for AA VEVRAA
• Selection decisions employers with
• Physical exam reports the same
exceptions shown
for Title VII
Family and Medical Leaves 3 years from the FMLA (1993)
• Basic payroll data showing making of the
additions/deductions from wages and record
total compensation paid
• Dates for FMLA leave
• Hours for FMLA leave
• Notice given to EE's regarding FMLA
• EE requests for FMLA leave
• All benefit documents and information
about paid/unpaid leave status
• Benefit premium information
• Any dispute or complaint from EE about
FMLA leave
Income Tax Records 15 years Treasury
• All payroll records (assessment Regulations; IRS Sec
• Name, address, account number, total period of 3 years 6502
amount, and date of each payment plus collection
• Period of services covered by each period of 10 years
payment plus 2 years for
• Amount of wages subject to withholding
 • Amount of tax collected payment of
• Explanation for any discrepancy between refund)
total and taxable income
• Fair market value and date of each W-4 kept for as
noncash payment long as in effect
• Form W-4 for each EE plus 4 years
• All other supporting documents relating
to each EE's individual tax status
Public Works Contracts: Prevailing Wages 2 Years Davis-Bacon Act
• Contract number and period each EE was
engaged on the contract
• Detailed pay records for each EE for each
day worked
• Record showing all EE's paid prevailing
benefits or their equivalent value
• Wage and hour records for all "laborers 3 years Walsh-Healey Act;
and mechanics" employed in construction Service Contract Act
and repair of public works facilities
• Records showing all EE's paid at least the
prevailing minimum wage
• Age certificate for each EE younger than 19
Pension Plans Permanent ERISA (1974);
• Records sufficient to determine benefit Welfare and Pension
due to EE's 5 years Plans Disclosure Act
• Welfare and pension records
• Supporting documents for ERISA filings 6 years after filing
Union-Related Records 7 years from NLRA
• Collective Bargaining agreements conclusion of
• Organizing Records contract
• Correspondence with union

Other Personnel Records 3 years after Best practices

• Attendance records termination
• EE training
• All verification of job applicant
references
• Verification of previous employment
requests
• HIPAA EE advisory record
 • EE awards 5 years after Best practices
• EE commendations termination
• Disciplinary action records
• Requests for transfer
• Job descriptions 6 years after Best practices
• Performance evaluations termination or
• Wage attachments or garnishment notices update
• Employer property records showing EE Duration of Best practices
issue of property employment
• Employment applications Permanent Best practices
• Job offer letters
• Records of pay changes since date of hire
• Benefits beneficiary designation or changes
• Benefits request form
• Performance evaluations
• Policy receipts with EE signatures
• All EE training logs
• LOAs taken
• Notice of union membership/dues
deduction
• Education records
• Termination records
• Exit interviews
• After records have reached their expiration date, it should be destroyed (shredding so that
records cannot be reconstructed by someone rifling through the trash bin).
Behavioral Competency I- Leadership & Navigation
Saturday, March 28, 2020
10:39 AM
Behavioral Competency 1: Leadership and Navigation
• This competency focuses on understanding and leadership and the knowledge/skills
needed to be an effective HR leader, along with being an effective HR Business Partner in
your organization and contributing to initiatives and processes for the organization.
• Four sub competencies comprise the Leadership & Navigation competency:
o Navigating the organization: Working within the parameters of the organization's
hierarchy, processes, systems, and policies.
o Vision: Defining and supporting a coherent vision and long-term goals for HR that
support the strategic direction of the organization.
o Managing HR initiatives: Executing the implementation and management of HR
projects or initiatives that support HR and organizational objectives.
o Influence: Inspiring colleagues to understand and pursue the strategic vision and
goals of HR and the organization.
 • Leadership and Navigation is defines as the KSAOs needed to navigate the organization and
accomplish HR goals, create a compelling vision and mission for HR that aligns with the
strategic direction and culture of the organization, to lead and promote organizational
change, to manage the implementation and execution of HR initiatives, and to promote the
role of HR as a key business partner.
Proficiency Indicators for All HR Professionals
• Influencing, building trust, emotional intelligence, and motivation are all key factors
needed to be a leader.
Conforming to Organizational Culture
• Organizations create their own models of leadership, creating a set of expected behaviors,
attitudes, and beliefs that become the leadership norm for the organization to fit in with
the organization's mission and strategies. (This result is leadership culture).
Collaborating Among Stakeholders
• There are five steps to apply to gain collaboration with stakeholders:
1. Know the stakeholders.
2. Identify what is at stake.
3. Understand each stakeholder's issues and language.
4. Set the specific expectations.
5. Value their input.
Accomplishing Tasks
• Managers do the following with groups:
o Plan activities
o Organize and identify resources required, including people
o Direct work in a way that ensures the best use of resources
o Coordinate to achieve efficiency
o Control resources and activities through monitoring, measuring, and correcting as
needed.
• Leaders perform the following roles with groups:
o They model desired values in all their actions
o They challenge status quo and harness the talent in the organization to solve
problems, accept change, and move in a new direction
o They inspire and influence people toward achieving a common vision and goals
o They maintain EE's motivation and focus
o They foster growth and develop people to their full potential.
• If an organization has ineffective management, it will fail to meet goals.
• If an organization lacks leadership, they often lack innovation and the ability to adapt to
change.
Demonstrating Agility and Expertise
• There is a clear message from the mounting research around demonstrating agility: you
should be either hiring for it, developing it, or perhaps, doing both.
• The traits to look for are simple: Self-driven motivation to learn, seeking out and using
feedback, and an openness to try something new and different (to welcome feedback).
 • Success as a leader depends largely on a willingness and an ability to learn because it
enables leaders to acquire new behaviors quickly and effectively, which ultimately enables
adaptability and resilience.
Setting the Vision
• Leaders set the vision of what serves as a powerful inspiration; this vision needs to be clear
and achievable, something that inspires others to want to be a part of it.
Leading the Organization Through Adversity
• "The best developer of a leader is failure."
Promoting Consensus
• Consensus management is the process where team members work as a group to develop a
solution and agree to support whatever decision is made in the best interests of the whole.
• Consensus management requires asking for input from each person on the team, carefully
considering that feedback, and making an earnest effort to address any concerns that are
raised.
• The key to success here is that everyone agrees to support the consensus decision once it
is made, regardless of how they feel about it.
Serving as a Transformational Leader
• The following are key elements of this type of approach to leadership:
o Power: Leaders can be recognized as formal or informal; often exercise the power to
empower other team members, act as their champion, and support their efforts.
o Orientation: Transformational leaders think in terms of vision, strategy, and values
rather than short-term objectives; believe in challenging and developing for the long-
term.
o Emotional intelligence: Have the knowledge and skills that allow transformational
leaders to be self-aware of their actions and emotions, and to understand others'
perspectives and the drivers of other people's behavior.
o Ethical grounding: They walk the talk of the organization's values, encouraging others,
and will sacrifice for those values.
Leading HR Staff
• Leading the HR staff to become a true business partner is one of the most important
leadership roles for HR professionals.
• Demonstrating the behaviors to be a strong HR leaders is one of the best training tools for
the HR leader.
• Strong HR leaders demonstrate the following behaviors:
o Develop and coach others
o Build positive relationships
o Model their values and fulfill their promises and commitments
o Have functional expertise
• Weak HR leaders:
o Focus internally rather than externally, failing to look outside the HR function to the
organization's internal and external stakeholders.
o Lack strategic perspective, focusing on short-term objectives and daily tasks
o Do not anticipate or react well to change.
o Resist "stretch" goals and act as a drag on the organization's attempts to innovate.
Facilitate Strategic Change
• Facilitating strategic change as an HR leader involves employing the three C's of change
leadership.
o Communicate: Unsuccessful leaders tended to focus on the "what" behind the
change, whereas successful leaders focus on the "why"
 Leaders who explained purpose of the change and connected it to the
organization's values or explained the benefits created stronger buy-in and
urgency for change.
o Collaborate: Bringing people together to plan and execute change is critical.
 Successful leaders worked across boundaries, encouraged EE's to break out of
their silos, and refused to tolerate unhealthy competition.
 Unsuccessful leaders failed to engage EE's early and often in the change
process.
o Commit: Successful leaders made sure their own beliefs and behaviors supported
change, too.
 Leaders who negotiated change successfully were resilient and persistent and
willing to step outside their comfort zone.
 Unsuccessful leaders failed to adapt to challenges, expressed negativity, and
were impatient with a lack of results.
Serving as a Voice for HR
• Today, HR is defined by not what it does, but by what it delivers; results that enrich the
organization's value to customers, stakeholders, and employees.
• More organizations have dispersed their staff as HR business partners in the business units
to be closely aligned with needs to that particular business unit, so that HR can help deliver
organizational excellence in the following 4 ways:
1. Become a true business partner within the unit with line management in strategy
execution
2. Become an expert in the way work is organized and executed, delivering
administrative efficiency.
3. Become a champion for employees, representing their concerns to line management,
and at the same time working to increase EE contribution and engagement.
4. Become an agent of continuous transformation, shaping processes and a culture that
together improve the organization.
Ensuring Accountability
• As an HR leader, modeling desired behavior and outcomes with the HR staff is vitally
important to other EE's and management in the organization.
• People struggle to be accountable when roles and processes are ambiguous; thus, having
clear roles, responsibilities, and expectations is a vital step in holding others accountable.
• Holding yourself accountable to delivering the outcomes and the outlines leadership
behavior norms is just as important.
Changing Organizational Culture
• When embarking on changing organizational culture, the first step is in defining the values
and behaviors you are seeking to change.
 • Culture is considered a potential competitive advantage if it is perceived as a positive
strong culture.
• Here are ten tips for driving a culture change:
o Define desired values and behaviors
o Align culture with strategy and processes.
o Connect culture and accountability.
o Have visible proponents.
o Define the non-negotiables.
o Align your culture with your brand.
o Measure your efforts.
o Do not rush it.
o Invest now.
o Be bold and lead.
Championing the HR Function
• To champion the HR function, HR professionals must build relationships that are known as
a reliable expert partner that champions high performance from the workforce.
• To champion high performance from the workforce, HR's functions must be deliberately
designed to support and be directly linked to the organization's mission, vision, strategy,
and goals.
Creating Buy-In for Organizational Change
• Working from the top down: In addition to obtaining buy-in from the C-suite, consider
bringing in mid-management into the change plans early on.
• Being transparent: Communication is key to prevent unfounded concerns and gossip about
how the change is going to affect people.
Asking for Input
• It is vital for employees to know their opinions and ideas are being acknowledged when
voiced.
• Change is key to helping organizations innovate and grow, and your organization's
workforce is the needed component for helping changes take place.

Behavioral Competency II- Ethical Practice

Tuesday, March 31, 2020
11:06 AM
Behavioral Competency II: Ethical Practice
• Three sub competencies comprise the Ethical Practice competency:
o Personal integrity: Demonstrating high levels of integrity in personal relationships and
behaviors.
o Professional Integrity: Demonstrating high levels of integrity in professional
relationships and behaviors.
o Ethical agent: Cultivating the organization's ethical environment and ensuring that
policies and practices reflect ethical values.
Definition
 • Ethical Practice is defined as the ability to integrate core values, integrity, and
accountability throughout all organizational and business practices.
o Personal integrity is a personal choice to uphold certain moral and ethical standards.
o Professional integrity defines the professional who consistently and willingly practices
within the guidelines of a chosen profession under the obligation of a code of ethics.
o Ethical agent means someone who, with strong internal guidance, practices ethical
behavior.
What are Ethics?
• Ethics are the rules or standards that govern conduct of individuals within a profession; and
are based on a moral philosophy.
• Unethical behavior is that which is inconsistent with the stated values, norms, and beliefs
of the organization's stakeholders.
Maintaining Confidentiality
• Handling such confidential information requires respect for the intimate and classified
nature of the information.
Acting with Personal, Professional, and Behavioral Integrity
• Personal conduct of HR professionals must meet a standard as high or higher than others
are expected to meet.
Responding Immediately to All Reports of Unethical Behavior or COI
• When other people are suspected of acting unethically, it is up to the HR professionals to
react with appropriate challenges.
Empowering All EE's to Report Unethical Behavior or COI Without Fear of Reprisal
• EE's at all levels must feel welcome to report observations of unethical behavior exhibited
by others, even their bosses.
Showing Consistency Between Espoused and Enacted Values
• Organizational values are valid only if they are supported by daily decisions from the
executive suite.
Acknowledging Mistakes
• If an HR professional has made an error, it is always preferable to admit the mistake and
extend an offer to correct it.
• Building confidence and trust in the HR department depends on the people admitting and
correcting mistakes when they happen.
Driving the Corporate Ethical Environment
• Driving ethical behavior with values and attitudes requires that there be alignment among
values, attitudes, and behavior.
Applying Power or Authority Appropriately
• If EE's are to trust and support an employer organization, the leaders must wield power
and authority appropriately and with discretion.
• Decisions must be made in ways that support the employment relationship rather than
undermining it.
• Successful HR professionals are people who understand the concepts of fairness and
equality.
Mitigating the Influence of Bias
 • It is important for HR professionals to make special efforts to seek feedback from those
they interact with so they can make adjustments to their behavior that may be
appropriate.
• Once personal bias is identified, assuring business decisions are not influenced is even
more difficult.
• Once treated unfairly by someone in a particular group, the sense of ill treatment carries
over into future relationships and decision-making.
Maintaining Appropriate Levels of Transparency in Organizational Practices
• Related to HR professionals, transparency means making information available to EE's,
stakeholders, and even sometimes the public, to explain policy changes and even benefit
issues.
• Compensation transparency: Employers are required to permit employees to discuss their
compensation openly and that of others in the group. In the private sector, such
discussions have been generally prohibited historically.
Ensuring That All Stakeholder Voices Are Heard
• An obvious prerequisite is the identification of all stakeholders for the organization.
Managing Political and Social Pressures When Making Decisions
• HR professionals are in the unique position of brokering compromise between opposite
views on issues such as benefits vs. budget restrictions, cultural celebration vs. production
requirements, and confidentiality of records vs. transparency of investigation outcomes.
• There comes a time in most people's lives when there is pressure from a supervisor,
manager, executive, or other influential player who would have you do something
unethical.
• Professional HR managers must put their jobs on the line from time to time to stand up for
ethics.
• "Just because your boss tells you to shoot someone else, you remain responsible for your
own actions."
• "Because my boss gave me an order" IS NO EXCUSE FOR DOING SOMETHING YOU KNOW IS
WRONG.
Empowering Senior Leaders to Maintain Internal Controls and Create an Ethical Environment to
Prevent COI
• Executives must be leaders, but they also must follow policies and values established by
the CEO and Board of Directors.
• From time to time, pressures arise to do something expedient that would actually violate a
policy or a corporate value.
Maintaining Contemporary Knowledge
• With changes in local, state, and federal laws added to the changes in research about EE
management issues, professionals in HR delivery positions are challenged every day to
maintain current knowledge.
• Maintaining current knowledge is imperative.
Establishing Credibility
• Acceptance at the executive table requires HR professionals to be accepted as credible
contributors among organization executives.
• Credibility goes beyond talk and promise; it is based on demonstrated accomplishments.
Challenging COI
• These situations should be identified and challenged by the HR professional; COI
undermine the organization's values, and can occur at every level of the organization.
Withstanding Pressure when Developing Strategy
• HR professionals have the need to constantly be aware of motivations that cause managers
and executives to take policy positions; counteracting such bias takes skill and commitment
to the organization's well being.
Set the Standard
• HR professionals contribute to performance standards by demonstrating behavior that is
both legal and ethical.
Balancing Organizational Success with EE Advocacy
• The organization relies on HR to help establish and enforce standards and rules; the
organization's EE's also rely on HR to be an advocate when there has been inappropriate
treatment.
• When management is actually at fault, EE's depend on HR to be honest and bring in an
investigation finding that supports their complaint as valid.
Developing HR Policies
• One of the most exciting parts of the HR management function is the development of
employment policies.
• HR professionals get to work with executives to identify policy needs and then draft new
policies; and have responsibility for gathering data that compares with alternative policies.
• Data supporting whatever policy is recommended should stand out above other
alternatives.
• Data includes input from executives and managers, analysis of industry standards and
expectations, and even competitor policies.
Creating HR Strategy
• Louise Allen says: "Deeper knowledge and understanding of your business goals and
business model can identify potential threats and opportunities in the quantity and quality
of human resource required by your organization. This in turn identifies the key
components of your HR strategy and the virtuous circle of providing whatever your
organization needs for success.
• There will likely be multiple drafts and reviews before a final strategy is approved.
• HR has a value-added mission to support the organizational reasons for being if it is to
survive as an internal portion of the company.
Making Decisions Aligned with Organizational Strategies and Values
• Consistency of policy interpretation is critical to employees feeling they are being treated
fairly.
• "Fair" is not a legal requirement, except for the common law requirement that employers
offer "good faith and fair dealing."
• You should be able to write down your organization's strategies and values.
Communicating the Vision
• Once executives have developed and described the organization's vision, it is up to HR to
support and communicate that vision to the workforce.
Maintaining a Culture of Ethics
 • People will comply with almost any requirement if they see their superiors also complying
with that requirement.
• A perception of fair treatment is a strong requirement in the employment relationship.
Turnover rates may increase if sight is lost in this department.
Aligning all HR Practices
• Ethical behavior requires all interests under the control or influence of HR professionals be
joined in the effort to support those ethical decisions.
• HR professionals must cover the following disciplines:
o Legal and regulatory compliance
o Labor union relationships
o Employee motivation
o Employee discipline oversight
o Global and cultural effectiveness
o Organizational leadership
o Support for creation and implementation of organizational vision, mission, policies,
and other behavioral expectations
o Recruiting and hiring
o Employee training
o Diversity programs
o Workforce leadership and coaching managers on leadership issues
o Oversight of ethical expectations
o Employee communication
o Consultation on business decisions representing the employee viewpoint
o Periodical review of employee programs to assure effectiveness
• Balancing several of these areas simultaneously as an HR professional (Certified) is an
expectation.
• If HR managers do not demonstrate personal and organizational integrity, employees are
likely to also demonstrate absence of integrity.
• Key components of HR professionals covered by the HR Professional Code of Ethics are as
follows:
o Professional responsibility
o Professional development
o Ethical leadership
o Fairness and justice
o Conflicts of interest
o Use of information

Behavioral Competency III: Relationship Management

Thursday, April 9, 2020
8:18 PM
Behavioral Competency 3: Relationship Management
• HR's most notable role has been, and continues to be, "the people" job; managing
relationships is a core function for an HR professional.
• Five sub competencies comprise the Relationship Management competency:
 1. Networking: Effectively building a network of professional contacts, both within and
outside of an organization
2. Relationship building: Effectively building and maintaining relationships both within
and outside of the organization.
3. Teamwork: Participating as an effective team member that builds, promotes, and
leads effective teams.
4. Conflict management: Managing and resolving conflicts by identifying areas of
common interest among the parties in conflict.
5. Negotiation: Reaching mutually acceptable agreements with negotiating parties
within and outside of the organization.
Definition
• Relationship management: Defined as the KSAOs needed to create and maintain a network
of professional contacts within and outside of the organization, to build and maintain
relationships within and outside of the organization, to build and maintain relationships, to
work as an effective member of a team, and to manage conflict while supporting the
organization.
Basic Proficiency Indicators
• All HR professionals must be able to establish and maintain positive relationships with
people both inside and outside the organization.
Establishing Credibility
• HR professionals must be the "go-to" expert on all matters involving Human Resources.
• THAT MEANS WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW AN ANSWER, SAY SO AND PROMISE TO DO THE
NECESSARY RESEARCH AND GET BACK TO YOUR CONTACT WITH ACCURATE INFORMATION.
Treating Stakeholders with Respect and Dignity
• An HR Professional's job is to treat each individual with dignity, even with the ones you
don't work well with.
Building Engaging Relationships
• This is a skill that is naturally executed, or something to put effort in.
Demonstrating Approachability
• While it is not always easy, particularly with people who are known to be difficult to work
with, it is important for HR people to treat others with professionalism.
Ensuring Alignment with HR Strategy
• It is critical for HR professionals be conscious of how they impact their relationships and
thus have the impact on strategic implementation of action plans.
Providing Customer Service
• For HR, our customers are our organizational employees and managers. We provide the
products, and services our customers rely on.
• Always leave a conversation saying, "Let's see what we can do." It will leave the employee
with a positive aura knowing you have provided good customer service, even if the
employee did not get exactly what was requested.
Promoting Successful Relationships
• There are some basic methods for promoting successful relationships:
o Help EE's understand organizational goals and strategies for achieving them.
 o Give each EE an understanding about how they personally can contribute to achieving
those goals.
o Acknowledge positive accomplishments when they are extraordinary.
o Showcase EE achievements in organizational publications.
o Say "thank you" when people do the right thing.
o Compliment the boss for achievements of people in the group.
Managing Internal and External Relationships
• Internal relationships take the form of employee and management encounters.
• Managing those relationships can be best accomplished by offering a positive experience,
even if the message HR is required to deliver is not one people want to hear.
• External relationships exist with stakeholders, regulators, enforcement agencies, media
contacts, and even membership in community service clubs.
• There is an expectation that HR professionals are "the face of the corporation" whenever
someone is dealing with you in an official capacity.
Championing Organizational Effectiveness
• Being a cheerleader for effectiveness in your organization is another role you must play as
an HR professional.
• Working with your HR boss to identify means for influencing improvements is often a good
way to approach the situation.
Serving as an Advocate
• When there are policy issues that need attention and large groups of employees are
providing feedback that the current policy is inadequate or no longer applicable to the
times, HR is responsible for consolidating those EE views and presenting them to senior
management.
Fostering Team Building
• HR sometimes provides team building training and facilitation programs, and sometimes
HR researches and recommends outside vendors for such programs.
• An important HR role in fostering team building is guiding supervisors on effective
behaviors for high-performing teams, helping them create internal team cultures that
include high trust, common vision, team unity, and accountability.
Building a Network of Contacts
• Effective HR professionals will have a notebook fool (or cell phone contact list full) of
contacts who can help with the wide range of HR problems that can come up from day to
day.
• Each day is a different issue, and you will be faced with doing some research to determine
what contact will help you solve your problem with, or for the employee.
Behavioral Competency IV: Communication
Friday, April 10, 2020
8:08 AM
Behavioral Competency 4: Communication
• Being an effective communicator is one of the most important building blocks to a
successful career in HR.
 • Career-level HR professionals will need to hone their oral and written communication skills
to handle EE and candidate communications, grievances, and training and presentations,
along with investigations.
• There are three sub competencies within the Communication competency:
1. Delivering messages: Developing and delivering to a variety of audiences
communications that are clear, persuasive, and appropriate to the topic and
situation.
2. Exchanging organizational information: Effectively translating and communicating
messages among organizational levels of units
3. Listening: Understanding information provided by others.
Definition
• Communication: Defined as the KSAOs needed to effectively craft and deliver concise and
informative communications, to listen to and address the concerns of others, and to
transfer and translate information from one level or unit of the organization to another.
Proficiency Indicators
• All HR professionals are expected to conduct themselves according to the following
behaviors associated with the competency of communication:
Communicating Clarity
• Communication is a vital and critical change management effort; HR requires over-
communication to ensure everyone hears and embraces a message, that they will
understand the message and act accordingly.
• The basics of a communication model are:
o Who is the communicator -> Says what Message -> in what way medium used -> to
whom intended receiver -> with what effect feedback
• Whether the communication is spontaneous or carefully planned out, the same model is
applied to ensure impactfulness.
• Clarity of what is intended to be communicated is absolutely of high importance in HR
communications.
• A communicator's ability to be clear builds their credibility and helps avoid rumor mills or
"noise" within an organization.
• Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, described the following behaviors that
contribute to the "credibility factor" within communications:
o Accuracy, derived from their expertise and preparation
o Consistency
o Reliability, doing what a person says they will do
o Courage to disagree when appropriate when necessary
o Integrity
o Creativity
o Maintaining confidentiality
o Creating an atmosphere that is comfortable
Listening
• Effective communicators are excellent listeners; they can interpret and confirm what is
being said, and use this content to drive this conversation further.
 • Communicators must also be good observers of nonverbal messages; they can promote a
more open and better discussion by using a nonthreatening manner to draw in a person
who may be indicating resistance to speak.
Delivering Critical Information
• The delivery of a message, especially critical messages, involves choosing the
communication channel that best fits the message and intended receiver's needs, along
with a delivery style that supports the receiver's understanding of the message.
• When delivering critical information, get to the factual point quickly.
Providing Constructive Feedback
• In constructive feedback, consider ways to be precise, but also help the person hear and
apply the feedback.
• This can be done by framing the message in terms of the ultimate goal of the activity,
what's lacking, what specifically needs improving, and what improvement would look like.
Ensuring Effective Communication
• Impactful communicators are prepared to shorten their message to key points if the
audience is rushed or bored, tailor it if the audience has more trouble understanding or
accepting a certain point, or expand the message if the audience shows great interest.
Knowing Your Audience
• Understanding an audience's needs and perspective relies on building awareness of
common interest.
o This requires seeking situations through the eyes of the audience or intended
receiver, an essential skill set within Emotional Intelligence.
Leading Meetings
• Communication in meetings often focuses on conveying information, receiving updates,
improving engagements and morale, and coordinating activities.
• Meetings can become time wasters that are resented by the EE's if they are a one-way
street and/or are felt to be a waste of their time.
• Here are additional tips for leading effective meetings:
o Set a clear agenda with defined items. Circulate the agenda before the meeting and
specify what individuals may need to do to prepare for the meeting.
o Allot time according to the agenda and stay within the time limit as a show of respect
for others' time.
o Start on time. Come early to allow social exchanges that strengthen relationships but
start covering the agenda at the published time.
o Take time to resolve conflicts but postpone discussion of conflicts that may be
difficult to resolve until after the meeting.
o Review any decisions and assignments at the meeting's end.
o Send an email summary if needed for more complex agendas.
Developing Communication Strategies
• Impactful communicators create strategies for critical and/or complex communications.
Mastery of Delivery
• Framing is also used in discussions of communication; and the term reflects the process of
getting an audience to see communicated topics and facts in a particular way.
• Effectively framing the message requires clarity and explanation; and in turn requires:
 o Articulating the objectives and desired outcome of the communication.
o Identifying the benefit to the intended audience.
o Identifying the key points of the message and placing them in a logical order
o Providing an explanation for each point that helps the intended audience see these
facts in the desired frame.
Behavioral Competency V: Global and Cultural
Effectiveness
Saturday, April 11, 2020
3:39 PM
Behavioral Competency V- Global and Cultural Effectiveness
• In the context of today's increasingly global workforce, HR professionals must be able to
interact with colleagues, customers, and clients of varying backgrounds and cultures
effectively and respectfully.
• Three subcompetencies comprise the Global and Cultural Effectiveness competency, and
are defined as follows:
o Operating in a diverse workplace: Demonstrating openness and tolerance when
working with people from different cultural traditions.
o Operating in a global environment: Effectively managing globally influenced
workplace requirements to achieve organizational goals.
o Advocating for a diverse and inclusive workplace: Designing, implementing, and
promoting organizational policies and practices to ensure diversity and inclusion in
the workplace.
Definition
• Global and Cultural Effectiveness: The KSAOs needed to value and consider the
perspectives and backgrounds of all parties, to interact with others in a global context, and
to a promote a diverse and inclusive workplace.
Having a Strong Set of Core Values While Adapting to Conditions, Situations, and People
• Appreciating and accepting input from other cultures can be a beneficial management
technique but having a solid foundation in the cultural expectations where we conduct
business is paramount.
Maintaining Openness to the Ideas of Others
• It only makes sense to take advantage of all the KSAs other people can offer, but
overlooking valuable resources can cause you to fall short of your effectiveness.
Demonstrating Nonjudgmental Respect for the Perspectives of Others
• By listening more and talking less, you can learn more from other people about their mind-
sets.
• Listening shows respect for what people have to say, it does not obligate someone to agree
with what is being said.
Working Effectively with Diverse Cultures and Populations
• Part of the communication challenge is being aware of differences (such as language
issues), and encourage people to work with them, not change them for their own
convenience.
Conducting Business with Understanding and Respect for Differences
 • Our language skills, our business background, and our specific skill demonstration all
become our self-expression about who we are.
• The trick for HR professionals is to train themselves to recognize, and even encourage, self-
expression from others.
• Getting to know who you deal with is the first stage of developing a healthy relationship. In
HR terms, determining a person's background, experiences, and cultural influences is
important to creating a healthy relationship with them.
Possessing the Self-Awareness and Humility to Learn from Others
• Humility is letting your experiences speak for themselves and not believing that you are
more important than you are.
Embracing Inclusion
• Embracing inclusion begins with recognizing our biases and working to prevent them from
blocking other people's contributions.
• As HR professionals, we are responsible for leading the way with our organization's staff
members and getting them to focus on recognizing their own biases.
• Employment decision-makers must particularly keep these thoughts in the front of their
thinking when selecting people for job openings, assigning training opportunities, and
making other employment decisions.
Adapting One's Perspectives and Behaviors to Meet the Cultural Context
• Cultural Quotient (CQ): Combines EQ and IQ in how we think of people and consists of
three components: cultural knowledge, cross-cultural skills, and cultural metacognition.
• Cultural mindfulness is the ability to recognize cultural context, analyze the cultural issues,
and develop strategies to work within them.
Navigating the Differences Between Commonly Accepted Practices and Laws
• Laws on paid time off
• Laws on paid vacation: The US is the only country with an advanced economy that doesn't
guarantee paid vacation its workers; no company is required to provide paid vacations to
EE's or pay its employees for federal or state holidays.
Operating with a Global Mindset
• Being open to all cultural contributions does not mean accepting everything that comes
along; it is important to establish criteria that represents the filter you will use in identifying
the way forward or solution to your problem.
Operating with a Fundamental Trust in Other Humans
• Without trust, influence wanes, intimacy erodes, relationships crumble, careers derail,
organizations fail to prosper, and nothing much works.
• Building trust is the foundation of every peace negotiation, every business collaboration,
and every truly meaningful endeavor.
• HR professionals are key players in building trust with stakeholders by demonstrating that
HR will do what it says it will do.
Taking the Responsibility to Ensure Inclusion
• Diversity management benefits associates by creating a fair and safe environment where
everyone has access to opportunities and challenges.
• Most organizations are made up of diverse cultures, so organizations need to learn how to
adapt to be successful.
Incorporating Global Business and Economic Trends into Business Decisions
• Incorporating sustainable development principles into a business's mission can improve it's
reputation and regain public trust, increase profit margins, open new business
opportunities, and reduce risks associated with less sustainable processes.
• HR professionals must be sensitive to economics when analyzing strategies for EE benefits,
payroll issues, policy development, and business impact. It is NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE for
HR professionals to work in a vacuum and just make recommendations without support
from a business case analysis.
Behavioral Competency VI: Business Acumen
Sunday, April 12, 2020
10:56 AM
Behavioral Competency VI: Business Acumen
• Understanding how the business runs, what makes it financially viable, and how it can be
guided to greater effectiveness is a role for HR managers that gains importance each day.
• Three subcompetencies comprise the Business Acumen competency, and are defined as
follows:
o Business and competitive awareness: Understanding the organization's operations,
functions, products and services, and the competitive, economic, social, and political
environments in which the organization operates.
o Business analysis: Applying business metrics, principles, and technologies to inform
and address business needs.
o Strategic alignment: Aligning HR strategy, communications, initiatives, and operations
with the organization's strategic direction.
Definition
• Business acumen: KSAO's needed to understand the organization's operations, functions,
and external environment, and to apply business tools and analyses that inform HR
initiatives and operations consistent with the overall strategic direction of the organization.
Building Strategic Relationships
• HR can contribute to strategic relations through its policies, planning, and management of
the HR functions; every HR does should support the organization's strategic planning
objectives.
Understanding the Business Operations
• Business operations are ongoing activities involved in the production of value for the
organization's stakeholders.
• HR contributes to an organization's business operations by supporting its people assets in
ways that enhance the organization's strategic goals and objectives.
Learning the Business and Operational Functions
• Operations Management: Business function responsible for managing the process of
creation of goods and services; involves planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling
all the resources needed to produce a company's goods and services.
• HR professionals should create "people" policies and practices that contribute to the
organization's operational success.
Understanding the Industry
 • Industries: Collections of enterprises doing similar things or serving similar segments of the
economy.
• HR policies and procedures should be constructed to enable rapid response to industry
demands and competitive adjustments.
Making the Business Case for HR Management
• HR should contribute key elements to organizational success; this requires the
development of a business case.
• There are ten elements of an HR business case:
1. Problem statement: Clearly state the specific business problem in one paragraph or
less.
2. Background: Be sure to include significant information regarding skills, budgeting, and
performance that contribute to the business problem. Indicate what is required to
resolve or reduce the problem.
3. Project objectives: Use a maximum of seven bullet points to state what the proposed
solution is trying to accomplish. Some examples may include purchasing software or
hardware, or selecting a new vendor.
4. Current process: Identify the organizational processes and units impacted by the
proposed solution.
5. Requirements: List resources needed to complete the project such as staff, hardware,
software, print materials, time, and budget.
6. Alternatives: Outline at least four options to implementing the proposed solution.
7. Compare alternatives: Compare and contrast each of the alternatives with the
proposed solution and the other alternatives. State similarities and differences,
benefits, detriments, and costs associated with each option.
8. Additional considerations: List critical success factors other than ROI metrics.
9. Action plan: Propose specific action steps (list your short and long-term action plans,
including major milestones.
10. Executive summary: Write a clear, one page summary of the proposed solution; tailor
it to your audience and offer a high-level overview of research that leads you to make
the proposal.
Marketing HR
• HR challenges have increased in recent times; identifying, attracting, and holding on to
qualified talent are number one priorities in many industries.
• HR plays a key role in support training programs that will graduate qualified people who
can be hired.
• Letting people inside the organization know that HR is working on their behalf to
accomplish these types of critical functions is important to creating HR credibility within
the organization.
Applying Organizational Metrics
• Organizational metrics are measurements of individual functions or specific business
processes within the organization.
• Applying metrics involves identifying things to be measured that are critical indicators of
success for the organization.
 • Business metrics can include things such as creating policies that attract top talent to fill
job openings and identifying applications for social media in raising revenues.
• HR metrics within those metrics might include annual benchmarking within the industry for
employment policies to ensure your organization remains competitive and HR actions that
can support social media programs.
Using Organizational Metrics
• Here are two very basic measurements that impact HR:
o Revenue per EE: Divide the revenue by EE head count.
o Expense per EE: Divide the expense element by EE head count.
• Tactical metrics are such things as reasons why people accept job offers, levels of
satisfaction with the boss, and number of new hires made within the target date on each
requisition.
• Strategic metrics are things like goals or targets met within a period time, value received
for HR programs compared to forecast value, and achievement rates for revenue or
expense targets and goals.
Leveraging Technology
• Technology can play a key role in communicating, interacting, collaborating, and training
workers.
• Measuring the savings is one way to support HR's contribution to organizational economic
performance.
Behavioral Competency VII: Consultation
Monday, April 13, 2020
6:00 PM
Behavioral Competency VII: Consultation
• Providing advice and counsel to your clients is one of the biggest roles and most important
for HR professionals.
• Five subcompetencies comprise the Consultation competency; and are defined as follows:
o Evaluating business challenges: Working with BPs and leaders to identify business
challenges and opportunities for HR solutions.
o Designing HR solutions: Working with BPs and leaders to design HR solutions and
initiatives that meet the business needs.
o Implementing and supporting HR solutions: Working with BPs and leaders to
implement and support HR solutions and initiatives.
o Managing change: Leading and supporting maintenance of or changes of strategy,
organization, and/or operations.
o Interacting with customers: Providing high-quality customer service and contributing
to a strong customer service culture.
Definition
• Consultation: Defined as the KSAOs needed to work with organizational stakeholders in
evaluating business challenges and identifying opportunities for the design,
implementation, and evaluation of change initiatives to build ongoing support for HR
solutions that meet the changing needs of customers and the business.
Applying Creative Problem Solving
 • Creative problem-solving for such a company-wide effort should involve representatives
from all aspects of company life.
• Steps to Creative Problem Solving
1. Identify the problem.
2. Generate a list of possible solutions.
3. Create a list of criteria for acceptable solutions.
4. Re-evaluate your list of remaining solutions.
5. Coordinate implementation of the solution across the company.
6. Evaluate the results.
Serving as an In-House Expert
• Being accurate is one of the job demands of being in HR; loss of credibility can happen in a
heartbeat.
• Become the expert people will look to for answers when they have questions.
Analyzing Specific Business Challenges
• When difficult challenges arise such as proof of EEO and affirmative action requirements,
you must identify issues, provide assessment of those issues to others in the decision-
making group, and offer recommendations with your rationale.
• The final decision depends on high-quality staff work (Completed Staff Work) by HR
professionals.
Generating Organizational Interventions
• HR can facilitate the resolution by knowing legal requirements and offering support to both
departments and their own missions.
Developing Consultative and Coaching Skills
• Ten tips for building relationships with your clients during meetings:
1. Do your homework.
2. Listen before you talk.
3. Learn about your client's vision of the future.
4. Provide anecdotes and examples.
5. Offer to work with other advisors.
6. Save your clients time and effort.
7. Use technology.
8. Build a team approach.
9. Find out how clients prefer to be contacted.
10. Follow up.
• There are also some steps to practice your coaching skills in addition to those you use for
consultation.
1. Listen with curiosity.
2. Take in what you hear.
3. Reflect with accuracy.
4. Ask open-ended questions to explore more fully.
5. Provide feedback for development.
Guiding Employees
• Guiding employees to a solution that they can implement themselves is going to free you
to help others more quickly than if you took on the problem resolution yourself.
 • Guiding employees through understanding where to find the answers they need is a good
approach.

Behavioral Competency VIII: Critical Evaluation

Thursday, April 16, 2020
3:12 PM
Behavioral Competency VIII: Critical Evaluation
• Four subcompetencies comprise the Critical Evaluation competency; they are defined as
follows:
o Data advocate: Understanding and prompting the importance and utility of data.
o Data gathering: Understanding how to determine data utility and identifying and
gathering data to assist and inform with organizational decisions.
o Data analysis: Analyzing data to evaluate HR initiatives and business challenges.
o Evidence-based decision-making: Using the results of data analysis to inform and
decide the best course of action.
Definition
• Critical Evaluation: The KSAOs needed to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative
data to interpret and promote findings that evaluate HR initiatives and inform business
decisions and recommendations.
Proficiency Indicators for All HR Professionals
• Anyone working at the professional level in HRM is expected to be able to access and
interpret information the organization's leaders need to make accurate decisions about the
workforce.
Making Sound Decisions
• HR professionals are expected to be able to make good, workable decisions in a timely way,
in spite of information only being partially available.
Assessing the Impact of Laws
• When federal and state laws change to a certain degree, it is important to determine what
specific impact they will have on an organization as HR professionals.
• When a company hires its first employee, it becomes subject to 53 federal laws governing
employment.
• HR professionals are expected to monitor these legal developments and forecast how the
organization will comply with those requirements.
Transferring Knowledge
• Using knowledge gained in handling one issue within the HR arena to apply to another is
both efficient and smart; equally important is the need to pass along to others the
information gathered in handling problems in one issue so that it might help in other areas.
Applying Critical Thinking to Information Received from Organizational Stakeholders
• Determining what information can be used to support organizational success is dependent
on being able to identify what is important from what is not.
• You have to store, sort, and retrieve each piece of data, applying critical thinking to each in
determining what will be helpful and what will not be helpful.
Gathering Critical Information
 • HR implementation starts with gathering data; identify the information you want to have
and then go get it.
Analyzing Data
• Once you have the data you think you need, begin sorting the process to determine what
will and will not be helpful, then test the data for accuracy.
• When the data is clean, then begin analyzing what it tells you.
Analyzing Best Practices
• Having in-hand an analysis of the data for your organization, the next step is to define what
the best practices are for the issue being considered
Delineating Best Practices
• Compare the best practices identified by contacting other employers and researching
industry data or through some other source; determine what other employers handle a
situation.
• Information sources can include the following:
o Your organizational history
o Industry data
o Specific data from one other company
o Peer-reviewed research
o Internet information available to the general public
o Response to survey requests sent to other employers
• Combine all the input you can gather and construct a description of the best practices
being followed by employers similar to your own.
Identifying Leading Indicators
• Leading evidence provide evidence that HR is achieving its goal expectations.
o Productivity: Translated into dollars, EE productivity offers opportunity for significant
savings in company expense. When one EE can produce more this year than last year,
the budget will benefit.
o Engagement: Results from EE surveys can indicate the state of morale and positive
feelings about the employer. In turn, these factors can reduce turnover, improve
attendance, and improve EE loyalty.
o Recruiting: Perception of an employer's reputation can impact people's willingness to
respond to recruiting efforts.
o Retention: Employee turnover can represent a sizable amount of expense. Reducing
turnover, or increasing retention, can directly reduce costs.
o Budget: Sometimes executive see HR as an overhead expense. Achieving success in
expense management is represented by the closeness HR can come to hitting budget
targets.
Analyzing Large Quantities of Information
• There are vast amounts of data that flow into the HR department each year, such as
financial data, recruiting data, internal EE data, and training needs data, just to name a few.
• It is necessary for HR professionals to sort the important information from the less
important.
• HR professionals must be able to determine which information should be acknowledged,
and which ignored.
• Once sorted and stores, HR has the responsibility to analyze what the data says.
• Identifying the problem, defining it properly, and then seeking data to help analyze the
potential solutions are the key roles in HR departments.