Human Resources Management

What is Human Resources, and what does it do?

Whether you’re running a small, single-person, sole proprietorship, or commanding a massive multinational, there are obligations for a business to consider related to the field of human resources. The definition we will be using in our course will be as follows:

Human resource management (HRM), also called personnel management, consists of all the activities undertaken by an enterprise to ensure the effective utilization of employees toward the attainment of individual, group, and organizational goals. An organization's HRM function focuses on the people side of management. It consists of practices that help the organization to deal effectively with its people during the various phases of the employment cycle, including pre-hire, staffing, and post-hire. - Whatishumanresource.com

Human resources is the function of a business which is concerned with the administration, rights, training, and representation as outlined by things like the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Employment Standards Act, and unions, among other things. From hiring, to training, to firing, establishing and adhering to the processes and standards, and investigating complaints, and so much more. Simply put, HRM is concerned with the following key critical elements:

1. Identifying, hiring, and retaining the right people for the right positions;

2. Educating their employees not only on their positions and any associated equipment, but also the full spectrum of their rights as it pertains to safety, benefits, practices, etc.; and

3. Maintaining the level of employee safety, efficiency, and competency through active and ongoing education and assessment from their hiring straight through to their release from the organization and covering any pertinent administrative/support obligations concerned with those processes.

   History

The term “Human Resources Management” (HRM) is actually a more recent one historically-speaking. It has a long and rather interesting evolution, and it often parallels the shifts socially towards the advancement of fundamental human rights. When you think about the causes that groups and individuals like Viola Desmond and the Famous Five fought - and continue to fight for with unions such as CUPE, you can begin to see that human rights are a critical consideration. Even as a single person business, there are things you should know, and organizations with supports and guidelines set out to ensure that you operate within safe and ethical standards. In many ways, though we are very different than our American neighbours to the south, we have paralleled their development with regards to human resources as a function of a business. One particularly strong resource to consider on the subject of HRM is whatishumanresource.com, they have the following to note on the subject of the field’s history:

HRM developed in response to the substantial increase in competitive pressures American business organizations began experiencing by the late 1970s as a result of such factors as globalization, deregulation, and rapid technological change. These pressures gave rise to an enhanced concern on the part of firms to engage in strategic planning--a process of anticipating future changes in the environment conditions (the nature as well as level of the market) and aligning the various components of the organization in such a way as to promote organizational effectiveness.

GOVERNMENT PROTECTION

Though during our exploration of business law later on in the course we do introduce concepts such as ‘Ignorantia juris non excusat’, the legal principal that an ignorance of the law doesn’t excuse you from being subject to the process, consequences, and penalties of violating the law; However, unfortunately labour laws and the protection of rights can be very complicated and difficult to understand - both as an employee and an employer. To that end you should be aware of ministries within our government, and government-appointed, such as the Ministry of Labour, the Ombudsman of Ontario, and people such as your local Member of Parliament.

Each form of employment within Canada is categorized through a group of standards set out through the National Occupation Classification (NOC). The purpose of this is for the government to provide a framework for understanding, protecting, and collecting pertinent data regarding the nature of the employment and its relative industry. This is done not only to ensure that worker rights are enforced, but also to provide an understanding of what a worker should themselves be expecting/entitled to. To gain a further appreciation of what it includes, the NOC describes the system as:

“…a systematic classification structure that categorizes the entire range of occupational activity in Canada for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating occupational data for labour market information and employment-related program administration. Occupational information is of critical importance for the provision of labour market and career intelligence, skills development, occupational forecasting, labour supply and demand analysis, employment equity, and numerous other programs and services.”

The benefits of having such a system include (but are obviously not limited to) the meaningful application of data towards change by those including labour market researchers, students like yourselves who are interested in an understanding of a career pathway, policy development and system support within government and related external bodies, economists seeking to understand markets, and the list goes on. It also establishes a legal precedent in recognizing positions as clearly delineated, and therefore subject to specific standards, protections, and entitlements. A HRM team which is active and adhering to the law, is one which not only understands the natures of the positions within an organization (big or small), but is actively ensuring that the organization standards and practices adhere to the legal frameworks.

Categories of Labour

Unskilled - Little to no training is required
Semi-Skilled - Level of skill required can be satisfied through workplace training or ongoing development
Skilled - Formally trained and qualified (generally via institution, apprenticeship, or other body)
Professional - Highly trained - generally beyond that of simply completing the minimum standard of an institution, often represented by a college or other body

DUTIES

HRM teams are generally to some degree or another involved with all critical elements of an organization’s staffing and workforce maintenance. They research positions for the nature of their duties to compare to the NOC standards, determine the necessities for work distribution as it pertains to staffing requirements, they seek out qualified and competent people to fill the positions, they undertake the hiring (interview screening, assessment, administration), and on-boarding of new employees, and they also ensure the active and ongoing education/protection of the workforce, implementing programs and policies to reflect the industry, legislation, collective bargaining, and so much more. To put it simply, let’s break down their duties into five core categories:

1. Workforce Management - They take care of the recruitment, hiring, professional development, retention, benefits, and release processes of the organization’s workforce.

2. Training and Development - The HRM not only integrate employees initially (called “on-boarding” and reflected in orientations) through safety programs, administration, organization-specific training, etc., they actively organize and maintain the workforce through updating standards in education, providing supports (physical or otherwise) when necessary, standardized performance reviews or assessments, and help with career progression and development (think leadership or specialty training) to support both the organization and its employees.

3. Compensation and Benefits - Not only the workers’ revenues, this also considers benefits which can be often the deciding factor for skilled personnel when choosing one organization over another. Does your organization offer full medical and dental coverage? Competitive wages? A pension? Paid vacation? A business vehicle? Will there be any incentive to achieve above and beyond the expected standard? These are determined generally with HRM involvement, and they are administered through HRM processes.

4. Employment Standards and Safety - A workplace simply must be safe! However, the nature of threats to safety has evolved significantly lately to reflect far more than simply physical harm (which isn’t itself so simple when you consider equipment standards and testing), but also psychological harm. Harassment, the stress of the position, the workplace culture, individual or representative involvement in the development of up-to-date procedures and equipment, these are only a few of the complex dynamics an HRM team will be involved with. As the law itself evolves and changes, the HRM team must also be aware and comply with the changes, passing on training and establishing the administrative infrastructure to support it.

5. Compliance - For obvious ethical reasons, an organization should be in line with the law, not only in how it conducts its business, but in how it manages and cultivates workplace culture. A well-run HRM would be one which has clear steps in place to adhere not only to the legal requirements, but also to make well known the organization’s positions and procedures for handling breaches. If an employee has been injured, subject to harassment, involved in an inappropriate relationship, sharing industry secrets with a competitor, HRM deals with not only the processes of informing employees of what they are expected to do and not to do, but also with meeting the standards of internal and external regulatory bodies such as the government. The Ontario Health and Safeties Act mandates specific responses and organizational obligations not only to the rights of employees, but the requirements of an organization to provide specific protected elements - things the HRM is required to satisfy, these include policy development, employee training, materials handling, and workplace incident logging.

This means that they need to not only analyze a lot of data, but they have to ensure it is relevant. One acronym often used regarding HRM data sifting in the industry is CARE, the data must be:

C - Consistent
A - Accurate
R - Reliable
E - Efficient

Much like accounting, HRM must ensure that the data adheres to standards of tracking which comparable, and meaningful for other considerations - such as understanding why a company did well in one period of time, but perhaps struggled in another. They are subject to review and audits by government agencies like the Ministry of Labour, so they need to have effective record keeping procedures which are also standardized in the industry.

HYGENIC VS Strategic Differential

Understanding then that a HRM team is involved in processes like the hiring, release and extended absence process , as well as the ongoing education, etc., how can different employers approach HRM? Though you may hear a number of terms comparing approaches to areas of HRM or even HRM as a whole, things like “Tactical vs Strategic,” or “Hard vs Soft,” for the purposes of this course we’re going to keep it simple and organize it into two camps: Hygenic and Strategic Differential.

Hygenic approach to HRM - This approach is more concerned with HRM as a tool to satisfy the needs of the organization. It hires to fill the positions based off of qualifications and experience, it undertakes the administrative elements diligently and effectively, it educates and maintains the policies to keep the machine running smoothly. Simply put: it does what is required.

Strategic Differential approach to HRM - This approach is conversely focused on distinguishing an organization from its competitors by use of HRM-related strategies. Instead of simply hiring a candidate for a position because they fulfill the qualifications and experience, a strategic differential approach would feature hiring someone who may be proven as established and innovative in their approaches. These might be the best in the industry, or someone who has shone in a particular area which will serve the organization, but regardless, the person will likely improve the organization’s ability to impose itself over the competition in some way. The same approach can be taken to account for retention of skilled workers. Often someone who is proven to be a strong asset to the company by virtue of their skills, experience, abilities, or natural inclination towards things like innovation, may consider leaving the organization to a more appealing offer elsewhere. Strategic HRM will not only be focused on retaining the skilled workers, but will actively be assessing what they can do to make their benefits, professional development, compensation, and culture more appealing. In this way they will retain the skilled workers, and often make the environment more tempting to other such potential top-tier candidates.

Assignment

In groups separate and discuss the following questions:

Our society has seen significant changes in the past 30 years, from shifts to marriage laws, to acknowledgement and development of programs to counter established systemic cultural barriers, new legislation around gender identities, language, and representation, and many other Charter rights. All of these have had impacts on elements within the scope of HRM. In groups of 5-8 discuss and be prepared to explore with the class Socratically 1. What you think will be the obstacles to HRM moving forward to adapt to the cultural dynamics? 2. How do you see the standards adapting to overcome these obstacles?