Chapter 4: Human Resource Management and Quality

Job Analysis

Work is an attempt directed toward achieving results. The total amount of work in an organization must be divided into jobs so that effort can be coordinated.

A job is a group of tasks, duties, and responsibilities that constitutes the total work assignment for an employee. These tasks, duties, and responsibilities may change over time. Organizations have to understand and match job requirements and people for achieving high performance. This principle requires job analysis, the process of getting detailed information about jobs. Analyzing jobs and understanding what is necessary to carry out a job provide essential knowledge for planning, staffing, training, performance appraisal, and many other HR activities. There are five steps in doing a job analysis of a job, as follows:

• Step 1: Decide how to gather information
• Step 2: Review relevant background information about the job.
• Step 3: Select representative positions
• Step 4: Actually analyze the job
• Step 5: Verify the job analysis information with the worker performing the job and with his or her immediate supervisor.

The three significant outputs of the process of job analysis are job description, job design, and job specification (requirements).

Job Description

The job description is a document that provides information about the essential tasks, duties, responsibilities, types of equipment or tools used, and working conditions of the job. Information obtained through job analysis is crucial to the development of job descriptions.

Job Design

The job design refers to creating balanced jobs in the context of organizational, environmental, technical, and resource demands.

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment is the process of generating a pool of qualified applicants for organizational jobs. Strategic decisions about recruitment consider factors such as assigning responsibility for carrying out recruitment, establishing the employment brand, determining the optimal mix of core and flexible employees, and the type of recruitment. e first step of recruitment is writing the job specification. The job specification is a document that presents information regarding educational qualifications, level of experience, and the KSAOCs, which are necessary for the job. The second step is attracting candidates. e final step of recruitment is choosing either internal or external recruitment.

• Internal recruitment focuses on employees who currently hold other positions in the organization.
• External recruitment orients to the candidates that are not employed by the organization.

Selection is the process concerned with deciding which applicants or candidates should be appointed to jobs. The selection process has the following steps:

1. Initial screening
2. Using selection tests
3. Interview
4. Pre-employment screening and background checks
5. Selection decision
6. Medical examination
7. Notification of candidates

Training and Development

Training and development are essential for continuous improvement. Training is the process whereby people acquire specific, identifiable knowledge and skills for use in their present jobs. There are four types of training as follows:

1. Legally required: Compilation of various mandated legal requirements (e.g., safety compliance, driving skills, and industry-specific requirements), and it is given to all employees upon hire along with periodic refreshers.
2. Basic and remedial skills: foundation skills that new employees may lack (e.g., MS Excel, foreign language proficiency, and core mathematics)
3. Job and technical skills: This enables employees to perform their jobs better
4. Soft skills training: Improvement of the organizational working relationships and the organization’s culture.

Organizations can use several training methods:

• On-the-job training (OJT)
• Vestibule training
• Apprenticeship training
• Job description training
• Behavior modeling
• Job aid
• Lifelong learning Team training
• Informal learning

Development is a combination of formal education, job experiences, and relationships to help employees prepare for the future of their careers. Career development is a formal approach used by the organization to ensure that people with the proper qualifications and experiences are available when needed. With career development, the organization identifies paths and activities for individual employees as they develop.

Performance Management and Compensation

The other vital pillars of continuous improvement and customer orientation are performance management and compensation of employees.

Performance management refers to the continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the goals of the organization There are two approaches for reviewing performance:

1. Free text
2. Predefined criteria.

In free-text form, the appraiser and the employee review performance in general before focusing on specific objectives, targets, or goals set in the previous appraisal. An alternative is to undertake a straight ranking of performance against predefined criteria or traits. Based on an assessment against the dimensions, employees are given the final rankings. Organizations can use numerous techniques for performance appraisal, either separately or together as follows:

• Graphic rating scale
• Alternation ranking method
• Paired comparison method
• Forced distribution method
• Critical incident method
• Behaviorally anchored rating scale
• Mixed standard scale
• Management by objectives

There is a range of rater biases that can also have a detrimental impact on the process of appraisal. These biases are:

• The halo effect i s a perceptual bias on behalf of the appraiser, in which they focus almost entirely on the positive aspects of an employee, regardless of problem areas that require remedial action.
• The counter-side to the halo effect is the horn effect in which an appraiser is predisposed to negative perceptions of the person and their performance.
• The comparing employees effect is a system of judging relative performance, where the manager evaluates one employee against another without considering the different tasks they are required to perform.
• The recentness effect occurs when managers rate employees based on their most recent encounter with them or their most current knowledge of their performance. It can mean that significant successes that occurred sometime back are underplayed, and more recent minor errors come to the fore.
• Where appraisers have to rank or rate staff , there may be an issue with the central tendency effect.
• Appraisal ratings are also influenced by gender, ethnic origins, and physical attractiveness.

Legal requirements (e.g., equal pay for equal work, minimum wage, and overtime pay), economic forces such as competitors and labor markets, the principles of equity and fairness, and job evaluation are significant elements that determine the compensation structure of the organization.

There are two broad categories of compensation in organizations: at-time rates and performance- based pay. A at-time rate is linked to the accomplishment of agreed hours of work. The payment may be made at an hourly “rate,” a weekly “wage,” or a monthly “salary. The most common methods of performance-based pay are as follows:

1. Output incentive schemes include a set formula relating to the level of output or level of sales (commission) achieved.
2. In merit rating, the employee’s performance is assessed subjectively by herself and by her supervisor according to agreed criteria. The payment is usually a deferred bonus or increase in wage level.
3. Gain sharing is a broad category covering a range of arrangements to provide opportunities for employees to increase their earnings when they achieve or submit ideas for improvements in desired organizational objectives. In some cases, the payment is made once-and-for-all.
4. Under profit sharing, a specific annual percentage of annual profit is distributed among employees.

Work Teams

Work teams refer to groups whose members work intensely on specific common goals using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills. e most common types of work teams are as follows:

1. Problem-solving teams : They are composed of employees from the same department or functional area involved in e orts to improve work activities or to solve specific problems.
2. Self-managed work team: This is the formal group of employees who operate without a manager and are responsible for a complete work process or segment.
3. Cross-functional team: This is the work team composed of individuals from various specialties.
4. Virtual team: It refers to the team that uses technology to link physically dispersed members for achieving a common goal. In a virtual team, members collaborate online with tools such as videoconferencing, e-mail, or Web sites where the team can hold online conferences.

There are four significant advantages of work teams as follows:

1. Work teams integrate employees around tasks and are intended to create strong networks of those people.
2. The integration offered by work teams also facilitates learning and innovation. Teams can support for refining ideas through discussion and mutual feedback by implementing new ideas and proposals.
3. Work teams substitute a peer-based control of work for traditional hierarchical control. In so doing, they typically increase the commitment and involvement that people have in their work.
4. The devolution of managerial duties to work teams enables hierarchical levels to be reduced and administrative overheads to be cut.