Assiniboine Community College Human Resource Function January, 2013

Module 1: Importance of HR Management

Estimated time: 4 Hours

Learning Outcome

1. The learner will be able to explain the importance of Human

Resource Management in Modern Organizations.

Elements of Performance

1.1 Identify challenges facing Canadian organization in the

context of managing their workforce (legal, economic,
technological, demographic, and cultural).

1.2 Examine the objectives of human resource management

(organizational, societal, employee).

1.3 Discuss the human resource function within an organization

(recruiting and hiring, compensation, training, safety and
counseling.)

Reading Reference

Read chapter one, Canadian Human Resource Management: A

strategic approach 2019 12th Schwind, G., Uggerslev, K., T. & Fassina,
N. McGraw Hill 9781259654923

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Evaluation Criteria

Participation in online discussion items No marks

Assignment One 20%

Study Tips

It is recommended that you make notes and complete tasks though

out the elements of performance from this module. These learning
points will be built upon in the upcoming assignments in this course.

Module One Overview

Human Resource management is no longer the relatively simple job

that it once was. In the modern workplace there are challenges that are
new: a litigious society makes employers fear law suits over neglect of
safety precautions, unfair employment practices, and unfair
distribution of rewards. The nature of the workplace has changed to
include many more people with varied ethnic backgrounds; this new
mix needs to be understood and treated with sensitivity.

Technology is developing at an unprecedented rate so that it is a major

challenge to keep abreast of new developments and the skills to work
with them. The basic tasks are much the same: recruiting and hiring,
deciding on compensation, providing training, safe working conditions
and counseling. (This last was not necessarily a function of former HR
departments.)

Element of Performance 1.1

Identify challenges facing Canadian organizations in the

context of managing their workforce (legal, economic,
technological, demographic, and cultural)

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“With a more sophisticated and educated workforce, one might think

that management of these workers should require less human resource
expertise. Today’s experienced CEO would say as much HR support is
needed today, if not more, than was needed in the past. The HR
professional of today has a far more complex role than before. The
expanded geography of today requires international knowledge and
skill. The litigious nature of our society means more and more time
spent on legal matters. The highly regulated nature of business today
means more involvement with local, state, and federal issues. To
master this role and maintain an inviting, productive, and supportive
climate in which to conduct business demands a highly responsive and
sophisticated HR organization.” (This quote is from the Foreword by Jay
S. Walker, Chair, Walker Digital and Founder, priceline.com and Eileen
Walker, former manager, U.S. Compensation, IBM Corp. in Smith &
Mazin’s book, (2004) The HR
Answer Book, Amacom, New York, etc.)

Workers, shareholders, and the general public are less and less
tolerant of managers who work in a slipshod manner, who take more
than their share of profits, and who cook the books. We are a society
that demands fairness and accountability, and who are willing to go
to court to see that it happens. Ethics have become important in the
market place. This Module will look more closely at laws governing
the workplace, and the place of HR in interpreting them and carrying
them out. Terrorism is another new threat to the workplace, to be
planned for.

Companies have been conscious of the bottom line, and the need to
create a profit for their shareholders for a long time, but there is a
limit to what can be done in reducing costs. New business methods
and technologies have created a need for becoming more
entrepreneurial and creative in finding solutions to the cost-price
squeeze. Every employee must give good value, but there must be
support in the way of training and encouragement for that to
happen.

Even as the pace of development of technology quickens, managers

find it challenging to keep up with learning new ways of using what is
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available. They must have an edge, get there first and with the best
product or value and so the old methods by which human resources
were managed are not good enough. They don’t allow for enough
creativity because of their dependence on a hierarchical system of
growth and development.

Globalization of the market place has placed tremendous pressures

on managers. With technology literally putting every market just
around the corner, there is a great deal of competition for which
managers must think strategically and act with efficiency. They must
learn new ways to deal with different cultures, and they must be
prepared to hire people from different cultures, which create a need
for a revamped workplace.

That our population is highly mobile means that the workforce they
represent is highly mobile and ready to move on as opportunities
arises to go where the grass is greener. The old way of being loyal to
one’s employer with the promise of being looked after for life with
benefits and pensions and a secure job is no longer necessarily a
reality. The new worker is committed to her/his own career and
providing for the family, having seen firsthand, with down-sizing and
right-sizing (whatever the term was) that companies did not feel the
responsibility to support them if they began to cost too much.

The nature of the workplace is far different now than it was in the
1950s. Immigration at that time favoured Europeans but in the 1970s
the policy changed to the point system that required immigrants to
gain entry on education, skills, ability to speak one of the official
languages, and certain economic criteria. The trend is expected to
continue. (Wilson, 9)

Cohen (2002) mentions the 4-Es of corporate performance:

Efficiency, Entrepreneurship, Equity, and Ethics. “Response to
changing environments requires of companies not only new
strategies for competing …but revolutionary approaches to managing
employees…these pressures require of managers that they think ever
more strategically about their most distinctive asset—their human
resources.” (277)

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Element of Performance 1.1 – Group Discussion #1

Complete this online discussion box in the appropriate link on Moodle.

Read through the contributions of your peers and provide thoughtful
comments on two of their postings.

Since this is a look at challenges, choose the TWO topics from the list
(legal, economic, technological, demographic, or cultural). Research
them with the goal of identifying which of them presents (a) the
costliest challenge or (b) the most time-consuming for the HR
professional or company manager.

Element of Performance 1.2

Examine the objectives of human resource management

(organizational, societal, employee).

Organizational objectives of HR management have not changed much

over the years since it has become a profession. They remain:

▪ to hire and train employees to their full potential;

▪ to develop a skilled workforce; and ▪ to maintain a legal and
ethical stance in the workplace.
What has changed is:

▪ the nature of the workforce;

▪ the required skills; and
▪ a cultural and ethical shift in emphasis in the workplace.
The workforce has become highly mobile and prone to
moving on laterally as well as upward in order to round out
the experience on their resume. Immigration has brought
skilled people who are competing for jobs that make use of
those skills. As jobs become fewer, with down-sizing,
competition becomes greater, and more people are going to
school to upgrade their skills in order to be more attractive
to employers. Another development that requires changes
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in the thinking and planning of the HR professional is the
flattening of organizational structures. Where there was
once a strict hierarchical structure with commands and
instructions proceeding downward, now planning and
decisions affecting the job at hand are made by workers and
supervisors working together in teams.

The skills they are acquiring have changed. They are learning
technical knowledge to take advantage of the onrush of new
advances in technology (HR people need to keep up with those
advances, too). They also need to learn to adapt to new cultural
influences that affect their jobs.

Society demands that the workplace conform to ethical standards

that it would like to think society itself conforms to. Our values do
not fluctuate so much as do the means of working out our values. In
the past, we allowed companies to pretty much rule themselves, now
we are demanding more accountability. We no longer feel all right
about bias in hiring practices, either in gender or ethnicity. In
general, our views reflect that rewards given for good performance
should be given to those who have done the best job and that
employees should be treated fairly. Many companies who formerly
relied on Mission and Vision statements now add a Credo or Values
which is a statement of their beliefs about how they relate to
customers, employees and the general public.

Employees are now expecting constant training to keep up with new

knowledge. Benefit packages are often more important than the
actual salary they expect to receive. They are asking why rewards for
work done by many are passed on to so few. Why should they take
risks when if they fail they lose? In the past, when a worker invented
a new machine that benefited the company, the patent and the
subsequent royalties would go to the company. Employers are now
offering specific plans to the innovators to reward innovation. Perks
such as health facilities, baby-sitting services, cafeterias, and lounges
are commonplace, as well a flexible hour for those with particular
needs, such as small children’s care.

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HR professionals conduct succession planning (deliberate planning to

replace retiring workers), promote long term career paths for
employees, provide benefits to families of employees, encourage
staff feedback and deal with labour relations. Strikes and slow downs,
as well as lock-outs have become human resource issues.

One other area of concern to modern HR professionals is doing what

it takes to help the worker feel that whatever the job is, it is adding
value for the company and has some real worth.

Element of Performance 1.3

Discuss the human resource function within an organization

(recruiting and hiring, compensation, training, safety and
counseling).

The primary function of HR has often been seen as recruiting and

hiring new employees. Recruiting employees requires a number of
preliminary steps. The manager must have a clear sense of exactly
what the job requires:

▪ What is the job position?

▪ What are the duties and responsibilities of the position?
▪ What are the required qualifications in terms of skills,
knowledge, education and/or experience?
▪ Who does the employee report to?
▪ How much does the job pay?
▪ By when must the job be filled to maintain productivity?
If there is no complete job description available, one must be written.
If there is a job description, that should be reviewed and updated in
consultation with the last employee doing the job, if that is feasible,
and the supervisor of the position.

Other considerations:

▪ Should we look within the company to fill the position?

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▪ Should we depend on referrals?
▪ Have all the current employees of the company been told of
the vacancy?
▪ Are there any programs, government or educational, that
would help the company pay for the new hire?
▪ Who will select interviewees, and who will interview?

All of these things must be done in order to make the hiring process
productive and relatively easy.

The hiring process itself will be addressed in detail later in this course.

Compensation also requires preliminary work before the hiring

process is started. There should be policies in place regarding work
hours, break times, vacation policies, how to keep track of work
hours, how and when payment takes place, how records are kept,
what is acceptable conduct in the workplace, smoking, how is the
employee promoted and what criteria are to be used, and others,
depending on the nature of the workplace. The actual details of
working out compensation will be dealt with later in the course.

Training is sometimes seen as compensation. Some of it occurs

naturally in the course of doing the job. A new employee must be
oriented; many times, there are new machines or routines to learn. In
some companies, if their product is knowledge oriented or other fast-
paced industry oriented, training and upgrading take place quarterly
or at least yearly. At other times, the training occurs as a result of a
promotion to a new position, or acquisition of a new machine, or
introduction to the market place of new ways of doing the job.
Whatever the nature of the training, in “hard” skills or “soft” skills, it
must be kept up-to-date in order to be useful.

Governments provide much training in safety procedures. Companies

are very aware of safety in their daily operations, both from the point
of view of the employee, and from the fear of lawsuits if there is an
accident. Product manufacturers themselves often offer training
courses in the product when it is sold. HR is responsible for this
aspect of operations, too.

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Another important aspect of the HR job is that of counseling and
skills in mediation and conflict resolution. This may take the form of
discussions about the job, other employees, complaints about or
from employers or supervisors, or perhaps what training is needed to
help the employee to advance in his/her career. If an employee is
fired or quits, there will likely be exit interviews to conduct. HR must
find out where the employee may be contacted, what jobs the
employee was working on, and the status of it, make sure all records
are completed, keys returned, company property left in the building.

At the same time, they must find out if there was something the
company did to cause the departure, whether voluntary or
involuntary, perhaps by poor communication, lack of workplace
standards, or feelings of isolation. HR will try to make the parting as
positive as possible by asking for the employee’s sense of why
termination, or quitting, took place, and by asking how the company
or the HR section may have contributed to the parting of ways.
Remember, the employee may be depending on your division for a
good reference for the next job, so the responses to your questions
may not be as forthcoming as you might like.

Our multicultural society and changing demographics affect the HR

department. They must be aware of the potential for clashes before
workers become used to the different way’s things may be done. It is
necessary for HR employees to be aware of the characteristics of the
cultural mosaic represented by their company, now and in the future.

One aspect of employee relations that has only recently become

apparent in large work places is the area of accommodation. That
term can mean installing ramps for wheelchairs or bars for aiding
walking, ergonomic chairs and keyboards; but it also means “a variety
of means to ensure that employees can work effectively and
productively in today’s workplace. Thus, accommodation is any
flexibility in practice and procedure without which an employee could
not participate actively and effectively in the work force.” Some
common examples…flexible hours, flex space, job sharing, tele-
commuting, recognition of religious difference, and the provision of
personal days are exemplified in these “best practices” in some
companies, such as the following:

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▪ A Dependent Care Connection service, that allows employees

with children access to referrals of reputable child-care
services, schools, summer camps, special needs, and
eldercare placement.
▪ In-home emergency child-care services for staff members who
must work overtime hours unexpectedly.
▪ Emergency backup child care for employees when regular
child-care arrangements are unavailable.

▪ A corporate fitness discount program for health club

membership.
▪ On-site child-care centres for all employees…
▪ The purchase of personal computers for home use that are
compatible with the office system to encourage ‘virtual office’
opportunities.” (Wilson, 218-222)

Element of Performance 1.3 – Group Discussion #2

Complete this online discussion box in the appropriate link on

Moodle. Read through the contributions of your peers and provide
thoughtful comments on two of their postings.

What are some of the labour market conditions that are affecting
early learning child care programs? Discuss each of the following:
economic conditions; demographic trends and increasing workforce
diversity; technology and globalization.

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Module One: Assignment One 20%

The goal of this assignment is to consider the job description / hiring

criteria for the person(s) responsible for the hiring of new staff in your
early learning and care workplace. Likely, this person is the Director of
the program so be sure to focus on that part of the job description.

Consider the challenges this person will face in your centre – staff
shortages, seeking innovative training opportunities, climate / culture of
the centre and community, training or experience. Provide reasons /
support for your choices if questioned by your licensing authority. The
position description should describe the ‘ideal’ person, personally and
professionally, that would be suited for this job.

See the following hiring criterion that was developed for a small rural
centre in southern Manitoba.

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Hiring Criteria Director

In the best interest of our project A,B,C Childcare, hiring priorities will
be given to candidates with the working knowledge of the community
dynamics of A,B,C, Manitoba. This would entail:

A broad definition of community that includes the small towns of:

Rumple, Juror and Martin.

Partnerships within the community

Sensitivity to issues of a small rural community – confidentiality,

farm safety, and the resource needs of this community

The candidate will:

Have management experience and knowledge of funding and

grants outside of funding available through Day Care Office

Be able to work flexible hours

Be able to instil enthusiasm and team work in staff and the

families in the community about our project.

Be a strong advocate for licensed child care in rural communities

Be willing to assist other communities in establishing programs in

their own areas.

Share a similar vision of rural child care as our board of directors.

If your centre uses a hiring committee, create this position description for
committee members. If the hiring in your centre is typically done by the
Director, create this position description as one section of the entire
position description for the Director.

This assignment must be written in essay format, or in a two-part format.

Part 1 would include list of preferred traits/skills/experience, while Part 2
would include your reasons for the inclusion of these preferred
traits/skills/experience.

Remember that this is not a full position description for a HR manager, but
a preliminary look at the requirements for this position.

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Summary for Module One

Challenges facing Canadian organizations in the context of managing their

workforce are varied. They include legal, economic, technological,
demographic and cultural sub topics that challenge Human Resource
Professionals as costly and time consuming.

Objectives of human resource management encompass these topics,

organizational, societal and the employee. Organizational objectives of
Human Resource Management have not changed demands that the
workplace conform to ethical standards that I would like to think society
itself conforms to. Employees have changed in that they expect constant
training to keep up with new knowledge and benefit packages are often
more important, than the actual salary they receive.

Human Resource function within an organization consists of recruiting and

hiring, compensation, training, safety and counseling. Recruiting and hiring
consists of knowing exactly what the job is and looking for the best qualified
employee to fill it. Compensation is vital as it is necessary for all policies
(work hours, break times, vacation policies, smoking, etc.) are dealt with in
the workplace. Training is dealt with sometimes as compensation. Even
though some of it occurs naturally, others such as orientation must be given
at the start for a new employee whether it is “hard” skills or “soft” skills; it
has to be kept up to date to be useful. Human Resource is also responsible
for safety procedures as they must provide training for such, for the daily
operation of companies and protection from lawsuits. Counseling is the last
aspect covered here and takes many forms. From discussions about job
performance, other employees, complaints, exit interviews and the list
continues. All this leads to “best practices” for each company or business.

Way to go, you have now completed Module One!

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